“Dilbert” creator Scott Adams may be dead — but an AI version of him is still talking.
But his longtime fans and family members aren’t laughing.
An AI clone of the late cartoonist has been hosting a counterfeit version of his podcast since Jan. 27, according to posts on the AIScottAdams X account, entitled “AI Coffee with Scott Adams.”
“My brother never intended, never would have approved, an AI version of him that wasn’t authorized by himself or his estate,” his brother Dave said in a statement.
Adams died of prostate cancer on Jan. 13, his ex-wife announced on a livestream of his longtime podcast. He was 68.
“Unfortunately, this isn’t good news, of course, he waited ’til just before the show started, but he’s not with us anymore,” said his ex-wife and caregiver, Shelly Miles, of his death.
The cartoonist, who achieved fame for his comic strip that launched in April 1989 and satirized office life, hosted the “Real Coffee with Scott Adams” podcast on a near-daily basis since 2018, and spoke out on current events and coached his listeners to increase their persuasive abilities.
Adams was a trained hypnotist who wrote many self-help style books where he focused on reframing language and thought patterns to help people advance in the business world and their personal lives.
The ersatz podcast on X features a disturbingly similar likeness to Adams, speaking in an eerily familiar voice, continuing to discuss the same themes he was famous for, all while drinking out of a digital replica of his iconic coffee mug.
Adams’ friends and fans were aghast at the bootleg version of the beloved thought leader.
“It is my firm insight that this needs to halt. 1: The family of @ScottAdamsSays must have full physical and commercial control. 2: The visual, audio and subject content quality is not to the level I believe Scott would have approved of,” AI researcher Brian Roemmelle posted on X.
The AI likenesses of public and private figures can have further troubling implications, Roemelle told The Post.
“Do you own your likeness, and what is the line? If you don’t own your likeness then what are you? Who owns you? Define what that means if you don’t get to own yourself,” he said.
“If we don’t define the line of where a tribute ends and an outright robbery and theft begins there’s going to be outright chaos, what’s left of your humanity will be rapidly stripped away.”
Dave Adams said he and Scott had frequently discussed the potential issues with unauthorized AIs being made of him, and that Scott had shared his concerns.
“I said it would be awful for me to see and speak with something that sounded and appeared to be him, but had no idea who I am,” Dave Adams said in his statement.
“Scott agreed that would be important to him as well.”
The AI Adams’ podcast X account posted a clip of the “How to Win Bigly” author voicing his consent for others to create AI likenesses of himself.
“I would like to be a model for one of the first AIs … I would be a good candidate to turn into AI even if you’re just practicing,” the AI doppelgänger said in the clip.
However, in later episodes Adams reversed his position on AIs of himself, citing the sadness it could bring to his friends and family.
“I’ve been telling you for years that I plan to build an AI robotic clone of myself, I have changed that plan… when you mention that to people you know, they look at you with sadness and they go ‘it wouldn’t be you,’ ” Scott said.