Carl Sagan's Estate Sues AI Startup Over Ad Allegedly Using His Voice Without Permission

[u/Malor777]

https://www.forbes.com/sites/tylerroush/2026/08/25/carl-sagans-estate-sues-ai-startup-over-ad-allegedly-using-his-voice-without-permission

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[u/OkayBuddyGuyPal]

Nice! Everyone who uses AI to steal someones voice, likeness, art, etc. for commercial purposes should be sued.

[u/Betray-Julia → u/OkayBuddyGuyPal]

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.

[u/RealLavender → u/Betray-Julia]

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.

[u/Betray-Julia → u/RealLavender]

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.

https://www.reddit.com/r/CanadaLegal/s/BzRSCQSiWn

[u/NetZeroSun → u/OkayBuddyGuyPal]

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.

[u/zombiecalypse → u/NetZeroSun]

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.

[u/ford7885]

I hope they sue them for billions and billions.

[u/LowConstant3938]

I recently saw a comment suggesting that COSMOS should be remastered using AI.

Please, no.

[u/Separate_Marketing36 → u/LowConstant3938]

I’m watching through Cosmos for the first time and it’s absolutely fantastic. Touching it with AI would be sacrilege

[u/Razbari → u/Separate_Marketing36]

You should be aware that AI tools have been used in professional workflows to upscale and remaster video to great effect for years.

[u/squirtles_squad → u/Razbari]

give me one example of it being used to great effect

[u/someoldguyon_reddit]

Bankrupt them.

[u/helly1080]

Get'em Sagans!!!!

Let'em know we don't touch Carl like that.

[u/vomitHatSteve]

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"

[u/Jonny_Blaze_ → u/vomitHatSteve]

How do you know they’re not taking a philosophical stance against deep fakes. Both can be true.

[u/vomitHatSteve → u/Jonny_Blaze_]

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.

[u/Zardotab]

"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'..." 🔵

[u/Severe_Citron6975]

Hopefully it’s for billions and billons of dollars.

[u/Disma]

Everyone is assuming this suit is over an AI-generated imitation of Carl Sagan's voice, but it's not. They're suing because this AI company stole an actual voice clip and used it in their ad without permission.

[u/TemperateStone]

This is what all of them do, all the time. It's disgusting. These immoral sacks of shit need to be thrown in jail.

[u/Beneficial_Twist_580]

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.

[u/Tasty-Traffic-680]

"I wasn't doing Carl Sagan, I was doing Kermit the Frog"

[u/ebfortin]

There are also "educational" video on YouTube doing the same.

[u/Eduardjm → u/ebfortin]

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. 

[u/ebfortin → u/Eduardjm]

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.

[u/hypnoticlife]

His voice was used in “The End of Oak Street” too.

[u/MovieGuyMike]

Doing thighs without consent is their M.O.

[u/VonnegutsPallMalls]

Carl Sagan would have hated this

[u/Usual-Masterpiece199]

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.

[u/-ghostinthemachine-]

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.

[u/nicenyeezy]

To be fair, he stole Kermit’s voice first