{"id":346081,"date":"2025-10-31T17:49:14","date_gmt":"2025-10-31T17:49:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/346081\/"},"modified":"2025-10-31T17:49:14","modified_gmt":"2025-10-31T17:49:14","slug":"tilly-norwoods-creator-roadrunner-called-out-for-ai-use-in-docs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/346081\/","title":{"rendered":"Tilly Norwood’s Creator, ‘Roadrunner’ Called Out for AI Use in Docs"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tAI expert Dominic Lees said that Morgan Neville\u2019s decision to recreate Anthony Bourdain\u2019s voice with the help of artificial intelligence<\/a> in doc \u201cRoadrunner\u201d was \u201cabsolutely appalling.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tBourdain died by suicide in 2018.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cNeville wanted it to be like a tribute, almost a eulogy. This movie is full of good intentions,\u201d added Lees. \u201cHe wanted it to look like Bourdain is speaking from the dead, \u00e0 la \u2018Sunset Boulevard.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the film, artist David Choe reads an email that the celebrity chef had written to him shortly before his death, only for \u201cBourdain\u2019s\u201d voice to take over.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe audience started to think there was something wrong. Who on earth records themselves reading an email?! Neville responded: \u2018OK, I\u2019ll fess up. I used a voice clone.\u2019 However, he had not informed the audience that he had done so. Furthermore, he told his critics: \u2018I\u2019ve used the technology in three other places in this film and I won\u2019t tell you where\u2019.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tSpeaking at Ji.hlava Intl. Documentary Film Festival\u2019s Conference on Ethics in Documentary Filmmaking, Lees said that the damage to Neville\u2019s reputation was \u201cvery, very profound.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cPersonally, I can\u2019t watch another Morgan Neville documentary without thinking: \u2018You deliberately deceived me.\u2019 The trusting relationship between me, the audience, and you, the filmmaker, is completely gone.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe argued the lack of transparency in the use of AI can \u201cshatter\u201d the relationship with viewers. Another issue is consent.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIn the middle of \u2018Roadrunner\u2019 controversy, Neville claimed<\/a>: \u2018I asked [Bourdain\u2019s] ex-wife and she said that would be cool.\u2019 Then she replied: \u2018No, I didn\u2019t.\u2019 This further undermined his credibility.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tDuring a keynote speech at the Czech fest, Lees also addressed the AI-focused production company Particle 6. Already behind the controversial \u201cAI actress\u201d Tilly Norwood<\/a>, it\u2019s also focusing on historical documentary.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThey said Tilly Norwood<\/a> would be taken on by Hollywood agents and star in films, but they also see documentaries as a major part of their future business, starting with historical reconstructions,\u201d he said, showing the company\u2019s showreel and describing their efforts as \u201ccomical.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe slaves in ancient Egypt are wearing bright white towels, as if they\u2019ve just come out of a sauna or something. This is how Particle 6 hopes to appeal to documentary filmmakers working in this area of television and historical documentary.\u201d Many companies hope that an ethical statement will \u201ccreate confidence,\u201d he said, citing Gennie, also specializing in docs and historical reconstruction.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThey\u2019ve got their \u2018Gen Commandments,\u2019 a public-facing and code of ethics that \u2018promotes historical accuracy, transparency, fairness in representation and respect for real human likeness.\u2019 But we have to be very, very wary of companies putting their ethics forward in terms of their promotion.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tReturning to the topic of voice manipulation, Lees mentioned the National Geographic doc \u201cEndurance,\u201d depicting Ernest Shackleton\u2019s 1914-1917 mission to the Antarctic. Its makers decided to recreate his voice and added a disclaimer in the end credits.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cProducer Ruth Johnston had to consider what\u2019s her relationship with the audience. \u2018I\u2019ve used AI in my film. What should I do?\u2019 She makes it very clear these voices have been recreated using artificial intelligence,\u201d said Lees, reiterating that \u201ctransparency is going to be one of the absolute core ethical issues around the use of generative AI by documentary filmmakers.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tHowever, voice creation \u2013 especially in the case of historical figures \u2013 can be tricky. Jan Rehwinkel\u2019s short \u201cHistory Will Teach Us Nothing,\u201d shown at the fest, features Hitler.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cOnce you\u2019ve created your deepfake AI human avatar or voice clone, it\u2019s a persistent asset that will exist forever. And who controls that? Documentary filmmakers think they don\u2019t need to worry, because they\u2019ve made their film. But this is a fine-tuned model of Adolf Hitler\u2019s voice that\u2019s out there. Anyone can use it. The ethics extend to the technology as a whole, not just filmmakers themselves.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tFelix Moeller faced a similar dilemma in \u201cJud S\u00fcss 2.0: From Nazi Propaganda to Online Anti-Semitism,\u201d ultimately deciding not to recreate Henry Ford\u2019s voice.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cHe was one of the richest men in the world back in the 1920s and 30s, and an anti-Semite, which draws some parallels with the present day. He latched onto this fake document, \u2018The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,\u2019\u201d explained Lees.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThey thought: \u2018Would it be possible to have Henry Ford read his own anti-Semitic tract?\u2019 It\u2019s absolutely vile, but as a filmmaker, you want to express how vile anti-Semitism was in America at the time. They showed it to me and I was worried for a number of reasons. Clearly, an anti-Semite could extract this and use it in 21st century anti-Semitic propaganda.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tHe added: \u201cThis is an important thing for documentarians to consider. I have the opportunity to use generative AI, which may be a beautiful way to supplement the creative impact of my film, but I can also decide at any time this is not the right thing to do.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tPraising examples of AI in documentaries such as \u201cWelcome to Chechnya,\u201d where deepfakes masked the identities of lesbian and gay activists who could otherwise have been murdered, he noted:\u00a0\u201cIn the age of AI, the audience is increasingly aware that what they\u2019re seeing on the screen may not be authentic. Authenticity has been an issue within documentary filmmaking since its inception, but now we have a much more serious problem on our hands.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AI expert Dominic Lees said that Morgan Neville\u2019s decision to recreate Anthony Bourdain\u2019s voice with the help of…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":346082,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[691,738,13115,170063,158,137868,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-346081","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-documentaries-to-watch","11":"tag-ji-hlava-documentary-film-festival","12":"tag-technology","13":"tag-tilly-norwood","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115470045320376710","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=346081"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346081\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/346082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=346081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=346081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=346081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}