Motown legend Smokey Robinson recently shared his thoughts on Artificial Intelligence, saying that the technology is “probably one of the most dangerous things that’s ever happened.”
Robinson, 85, touched on the topic during an interview with TMZ on Monday, and he urged his fellow artists to take whatever protective action that they could. Robinson also said that the sole thing you could take to put a stop to people using A.I. to mimic you, was to make an effort to own your image and likeness, which is an action he has already taken.
Robinson also said that despite his inability to prevent people from using his image without seeking authorization, he can still “react.” He also sent out a word of caution to people who intend to use A.I. to create his image and likeness, saying that they should avoid that if they “don’t want to get in trouble.”
“It’s a real scary situation when somebody can just take your image and take your voice and a lot of people don’t even know the difference,” Robinson added. “That’s very scary — especially when you’re in show business.”
Earlier this year, Face2Face Africa reported that rapper Sexyy Red apologized to Martin Luther King Jr.’s daughter for sharing an AI-generated photo of herself with the popular civil rights icon.
The now-deleted X post, which was posted on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, featured the 27-year-old rapper holding hands with King in a busy nightclub. King’s youngest child, Dr. Bernice King, took offense at the post and responded by requesting that the rapper remove it.
“This is intentionally distasteful, dishonoring, deplorable, and disrespectful to my family and my father, who is not here to respond himself because he was assassinated for working for your civil and human rights,” King wrote.
King later denounced certain insulting personal remarks made about Red, writing, “I don’t believe Sexyy Red to be a ‘degenerate,’ ‘ghetto,’ or ‘trash.’ I have spoken out in the past about the use of and comparison to either of my parents to denigrate other people.”
She clarified, “I just don’t understand this type of use of my father’s image (on #MLKDay, no less), in a way that does not convey what we know to be true about his service and sacrifice. Even if you disagree with him or with his tactics or even believe things said about him by people who hated him, why do this?”
Subsequently, the “SkeeYee” rapper removed the post and expressed regret to the King family.
Red posted, “You ain’t wrong, I never meant to disrespect your family; my apologies. Just resposted something I saw that I thought was innocent.”
King acknowledged the apology and expressed her respect for the rapper “as a human being.”
She responded, “Thank you for your apology, which I sincerely accept. Please know that it was not my intention that you be denigrated. I value you as a human being,” she wrote. “I hope you understand my concerns about the image.”
She noted, “I know that my father has become a bit of a caricature to the world and that his image is often used with no regard to his family, his sacrificial work, or to the tragic, unjust way in which he died (a state-sanctioned assassination). Unfortunately, I regularly challenge the disregard,” adding, “I earnestly wish that people would imagine what it would feel like to see their deceased, murdered father repurposed for party fliers, unjust legislation, etc. All the best to you, young lady.”
Last week, OpenAI also announced that it had banned the creation of deepfakes depicting Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. following public outrage over a series of “disrespectful” and racist videos created using its artificial intelligence video generator, Sora.
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