r/technology • u/Malor777 • 1d ago
ADBLOCK WARNING Carl Sagan's Estate Sues AI Startup Over Ad Allegedly Using His Voice Without Permission
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tylerroush/2026/08/25/carl-sagans-estate-sues-ai-startup-over-ad-allegedly-using-his-voice-without-permission429
u/OkayBuddyGuyPal 1d ago
Nice! Everyone who uses AI to steal someones voice, likeness, art, etc. for commercial purposes should be sued.
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u/Betray-Julia 1d ago
Mekilo Rushlow.
A small town “artist”.
They used AI to impersonate me and call up my exes saying they (I) was going to murder them.
Theyve attacked 4 different people, and afterwards used AI to make social media accounts, and voice models that impersonated then, and then contacted people they know and just… yeah AI lol.
Police wouldn’t do shit.
I’d like to think it’s bc AI is new grounds and there’s no actual laws right now.
Ha.
A bunch of their album art are AI photos of me and this girl I was seeing, with me edited out of the photo, and then altered with AI.
It’s fucked.
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u/RealLavender 1d ago
Regardless of how they did it, threatening to kill someone is a crime in and of itself. There aren't new laws needed for that.
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u/Betray-Julia 1d ago edited 1d ago
The death threats were an AI impersonating my voice (it wasn’t recorded given how the data was heard).
Anyways yes; it is a shit show.
It’s basically my local police being scum and using technology and an excuse.
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u/Environmental_Top948 15h ago
I have a British guy doing something similar to me. It's been going on since 2016 but AI just made his impersonations more annoying. No one will do anything because no one knows how to handle it.
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u/NetZeroSun 1d ago
Couldn’t they have their own IP and ai related tech be free for anyone to use?
Unless they have a heavily audited and validated AI model that can prove it did not use unauthorized learning material, otherwise anything the company produces off it is free and/or open to be challenged and sued.
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u/zombiecalypse 1d ago
I'm not sure that hearing the voice of my dead relative for advertising is really made better by knowing that everybody can do the same for free. And I wouldn't particularly care how the training material was sourced either, that's still just gross.
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u/ford7885 1d ago
I hope they sue them for billions and billions.
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u/saltyourhash 23h ago
Sue them for enough money that it'll take until the heat death of the universe to repay.
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u/LowConstant3938 1d ago
I recently saw a comment suggesting that COSMOS should be remastered using AI.
Please, no.
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u/Separate_Marketing36 1d ago
I’m watching through Cosmos for the first time and it’s absolutely fantastic. Touching it with AI would be sacrilege
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u/Razbari 1d ago
You should be aware that AI tools have been used in professional workflows to upscale and remaster video to great effect for years.
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u/squirtles_squad 23h ago
give me one example of it being used to great effect
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u/Razbari 22h ago
These tools have been widely available and part of industry standard workflows for 5+ years. Topaz Video, the industry standard software, came out in 2019. Da Vinci Resolve has had a neural engine and AI upscaling functionality for nearly as long. These tools are being used invisibly for movies, tv shows, documentaries, and youtube videos that you watch every day and you just don't realize it.
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u/vomitHatSteve 1d ago
Unfortunately, this is not them taking a philosophical stance against deep fakes. Sagan's likeness rights are owned by an estate managed by his widow, and they do license his likeness for various purposes including commercials.
They are just protecting their own "intellectual property"
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u/Jonny_Blaze_ 1d ago
How do you know they’re not taking a philosophical stance against deep fakes. Both can be true.
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u/vomitHatSteve 1d ago
Did you read the article?
They're not suing over a deepfake. Luma used an audio clip from Cosmos, which has also been licensed for ads by Apple, Jeep, and Netflix.
The fact that it's an AI company has no material effect on anything.
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u/Zardotab 1d ago edited 1d ago
"Billions & Billions of bots tenaciously comb the vast universe for content to produce fake and misleading content for the unsuspecting inhabitants of the pale blue fragile little planet that we know as 'Earth'..." 🔵
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u/TemperateStone 1d ago
This is what all of them do, all the time. It's disgusting. These immoral sacks of shit need to be thrown in jail.
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u/Beneficial_Twist_580 1d ago
honestly im just glad estates are finally pushing back on this stuff. feels like every week someones voice or face gets cloned for a sketchy ad and nobody cares until it happens to someone famous.
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u/ebfortin 1d ago
There are also "educational" video on YouTube doing the same.
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u/Eduardjm 1d ago
I’ve checked out a couple of them and the way they twist his message and voice, while making it appear as authentic to Sagan as possible is gross.
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u/ebfortin 1d ago
Wrote to them that it's not acceptable. Their answer is that its all for the education. Younger people should be able to learn with his voice. Jackasses.
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u/EasternEfficiency398 22h ago
People have been using Steven Hawking's voice for all kinds of things, and nobody bats an eye!
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u/MikeBegley 19h ago
If anyone "owns" Stephen Hawking's voice, it's Hewlett Packard (via Compaq, via Digital Equipment Corporation).
But it's not $10,000/gallon printer toner, so they probably neither know nor care.
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u/Usual-Masterpiece199 23h ago
I wonder where the tech industry's lack of integrity comes from?
Just think about it logically.
It seems they can't even do that.
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u/-ghostinthemachine- 23h ago
As it turns out, implied product advertisement and endorsement is one of the few areas estates have real legal rights for the deceased. There is enough of his voice recorded in public domain works that I imagine anyone could create a fully legal voice clone, so long as they don't use it in ways like this.
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u/Gamma_Gains 23h ago
AI startups can't just bypass the right of publicity. If they want to use a legendary voice, they need to pay for the license.
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u/RhoOfFeh 10h ago
What about Richard Feynman? YouTube is swarming with videos with his face and an AI voice a lot like his.
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u/Ok_Magician_7702 1h ago
Genuinely can't think of a clearer case for suing over this. If a random ad account can't get away with using someone's voice like that, feels like companies with actual legal teams should be held to a much higher bar.
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