Zak, Zelda and Cody Williams have reactivated their father’s Instagram account, dormant since his death in 2014, to fight back against the Robin Williams AI recreations that have flooded social media.
The account, @therobinwilliams, posted its first message in 12 years this week, marking what would have been his 75th year. The internet had kept him on screen anyway; the family is now posting the authorised version.
“As technology evolves, we want this to be a safe, trusted place where the stories, photos, videos, and memories shared reflect his legacy with authenticity, warmth, and care.”
Zak, Zelda and Cody Williams
On her own account, Zelda was blunter about the point of the exercise.
“Making that space into one where people can find authentic clips and photos of him is one of the best ways we’ve now found to fight back against rampant AI abuse of his voice and likeness on here.”
Zelda Williams
“Might be a drop in the bucket, but we’re trying,” she added.
Why the Robin Williams AI fakes keep coming
This is not the family’s first complaint. In October 2025, Zelda asked fans to stop sending her AI videos of her father. “Stop believing I wanna see it or that I’ll understand, I don’t and I won’t,” she wrote. The videos did not stop.
Williams has been the subject of countless AI recreations of dead celebrities, a genre The Wrap calls “slop”. The same argument is running through entertainment elsewhere: a Supergirl featurette was quietly edited after viewers flagged suspected AI art, and Twitch made AI training the default rather than the choice.
Platforms have guardrails against celebrity likenesses, and they are routinely bypassed. OpenAI’s Sora app became a hotbed of videos featuring copyrighted characters and celebrities before it was shut down, and ByteDance’s Seedance signed a deal with the Motion Picture Association after its guardrails let users generate scenes with stars’ likenesses, per The Verge.
The account is run by the family, posting real material under a verified tick. The revival post had drawn more than 200,000 likes within days. The account has 82 posts and 346,000 followers — modest numbers, and the only Robin Williams feed on Instagram where nothing is generated.
Who is running Robin Williams’ Instagram account now?
Zak, Zelda and Cody Williams. They revived the verified @therobinwilliams account this week and will fill it with photos, videos and memories that reflect his legacy ‘with authenticity, warmth, and care’.
Why are there so many AI videos of Robin Williams?
His instantly recognisable voice and face make him a favourite subject for generative video tools. AI recreations of deceased celebrities, often called ‘slop’, have spread widely in recent years, and platform guardrails are routinely bypassed.
When did Robin Williams die?
August 11, 2014, aged 63. His Instagram account had been inactive since then until his children revived it this week.
