Comedians are accusing artificial intelligence (AI) accounts of reproducing their routines on Instagram, with clips attracting hundreds of thousands of views and raising concerns about protections for original work.
The complaints extend concerns about AI copying creative work beyond music and literature. Comedians say viewers are mistaking the generated performers for real people.
Creators identify copied performances
Comedian and content creator George Brett Olson posted an Instagram breakdown accusing an AI account with more than 300,000 followers of copying his joke word for word.
The generated female performer appeared against the same venue background, wore a more revealing version of his outfit and moved her arms at corresponding moments. The account also has an OnlyFans page.
“AI stole my joke and my outfit,” Olson said. His routine concerned AI’s threat to jobs and the role of billionaires, including Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg.
“This is the most ironic thing that’s ever happened to me,” Olson said.
Comedian Jasunas described a similar experience: “So another AI bot just stole my joke.” He said he had seen other comedians raise the same complaint and was concerned that viral AI performers were being mistaken for people.
The female avatar Jasunas identified wore revealing clothing. He accused those behind such accounts of using copied jokes to earn money from views and engagement, then directing audiences to OnlyFans for further revenue.
Instagram considers its response
Olson also questioned platform protections, asserting that the activity did not violate terms of service. He accused social media leaders of failing to protect creators while developing AI technology.
Instagram chief Adam Mosseri said banning AI content would be impractical because it would become increasingly difficult to identify and was not uniformly poor quality.
He said Instagram was working to direct more traffic to original creators and would examine possible responses to AI accounts copying material wholesale. He had not identified a remedy but said he would discuss it with his team.
A Meta spokesperson said the problem also affected YouTube and TikTok, extending beyond Meta’s platforms.
