AI Revives Dead Celebrities, Sparking Laughter and Outrage

In a strange digital twist, Queen Elizabeth II enthuses about cheese puffs, Saddam Hussein appears in a wrestling ring with a gun, and Pope John Paul II tries skateboarding — all through hyper-realistic AI videos circulating online.

These lifelike recreations of deceased celebrities, produced using apps such as OpenAI’s Sora, have spread rapidly across social media, fuelling debate over who controls the likeness of the dead.

OpenAI’s Sora app, launched in September and widely described as a deepfake tool, has triggered a surge of videos featuring historical figures like Winston Churchill alongside pop icons such as Michael Jackson and Elvis Presley.

In one TikTok video reviewed by AFP, Queen Elizabeth II, wearing pearls and a crown, rides a scooter into a wrestling arena, climbs a fence and jumps onto a male wrestler. Another Facebook clip shows the late monarch praising “delightfully orange” cheese puffs in a supermarket, while a separate video depicts her playing football.

Not all of the content generated with OpenAI’s Sora 2 model has been taken lightly.

In October, OpenAI blocked users from creating videos of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. after his estate objected to what it described as disrespectful portrayals. Some users had generated videos showing King making monkey noises during his iconic “I Have a Dream” speech, highlighting how AI can make public figures say or do things they never did.

‘Maddening’

“We’re getting into the ‘uncanny valley,’” said Constance de Saint Laurent, a professor at Ireland’s Maynooth University, referring to the discomfort people feel when artificial creations appear almost human.

“If suddenly you started receiving videos of a deceased family member, this is traumatizing,” she told AFP. “These (videos) have real consequences.”

Recently, the children of late actor Robin Williams, comedian George Carlin, and activist Malcolm X have publicly criticised the use of Sora to generate synthetic videos of their fathers.

Zelda Williams, Robin Williams’ daughter, appealed on Instagram for people to “stop sending me AI videos of dad,” describing the content as “maddening.”

An OpenAI spokesperson told AFP that while there are “strong free speech interests in depicting historical figures,” public figures and their families should ultimately control the use of their likenesses. For “recently deceased” individuals, the spokesperson added, authorised representatives or estate owners can now request that their likeness not be used in Sora.

‘Control Likeness’

“Despite what OpenAI says about wanting people to control their likeness, they have released a tool that decidedly does the opposite,” said Hany Farid, co-founder of GetReal Security and a professor at the University of California, Berkeley.

“While they (mostly) stopped the creation of MLK Jr. videos, they are not stopping users from co-opting the identity of many other celebrities,” Farid told AFP.

“Even with OpenAI putting some safeguards to protect MLK Jr. there will be another AI model that does not, and so this problem will surely only get worse,” he added.

The risks were highlighted after the alleged murder of Hollywood director Rob Reiner this month, when AFP fact-checkers identified AI-generated videos using his likeness circulating online.

As advanced AI tools continue to spread, experts warn the threat is no longer limited to famous figures. Deceased non-celebrities could also see their names, faces and words reused in synthetic content.

Researchers caution that the unchecked rise of such material — often labelled “AI slop” — could eventually erode trust in online information and push users away from social media altogether.

“The issue with misinformation in general is not so much that people believe it. A lot of people don’t,” Saint Laurent said.

“The issue is that they see real news and they don’t trust it anymore. And this (Sora) is going to massively increase that.”

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