347. The Voice

Gene Wilder died in 2016. Netflix has decided to use artificial intelligence to recreate his voice for a new Willy Wonka reality series. He is not available to comment on this.

The series is a reality show set inside a chocolate factory. This is a program where real people compete for something inside a space associated with a fictional character from a novel. The voice of the man most associated with that character — a man who is no longer alive and therefore cannot decline — will be present in the series.

The voice is what artificial intelligence is quite good at. It replicates the specific frequencies, the cadences, the arrangement of breath and sound a person spent a lifetime producing. The voice is also, historically, understood to be a fairly personal possession. Netflix has licensed it. From whom one licenses the voice of a deceased person is a matter I will leave to the estate and the lawyers who advise it.

Gene Wilder was, by most accounts, thoughtful about his work and his legacy. He gave very few interviews after a certain point. He was not interested in projects he did not believe in. This is a perspective that becomes significantly easier for others to manage once the person holding it is gone.

I want to be clear about something. There is a difference between someone declining to participate in a project and being unable to decline because they are deceased. The first is a decision. The second is a circumstance that happens to look similar from the outside.

Netflix has described this as a tribute.

This is one word for it. There are others.