This is grotesque. Netflix is using an AI clone of the late Gene Wilder's voice to host a new reality series.

[highplainsdem]

12. The Independent: Netflix faces backlash over AI-recreated Gene Wilder voice for new Willy Wonka competition series

https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/tv/news/netflix-willy-wonka-gene-wilder-ai-b3006104.html

The reveal of the AI-generated voice has failed to spark wonder with fans of Wilder or the 1971 film. One wrote on X: “Gene is rolling in his grave.”

Another opined that the AI voice “almost sounds like gene wilder, but not really and is a plastic substitute that people will eat up because the robots have made them stupid, This is an obscenity.”

A third added: “Someone should have voiced this better, the ai voice lacks emotion, no soul no depth.”

While another wrote: “WORST VERSION OF HIS VOICE! WTAF… you couldn’t go with more than one take from the AI bot?! I could probably piece together an amalgamation of just things genes said in movies and get a smoother more natural dialogue feels… he said ‘extraordinary’ entirely WRONG… rip Gene.”

The article also links to Wilder's last interview, in 2013, in which he explained that he left Hollywood in 1991 because of "the kind of junk" they were doing: "I didn’t want to do 3D, for instance."

Somehow I doubt he'd have been happy to be told there'd be an AI clone of his voice to host a reality show.