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As AI tools become more sophisticated, they’re increasingly being used to imitate the voices of the dead, with and without permission. It can be big business. According to an industry source with knowledge of deals between estates and AI companies that reproduce voices, they are typically paid out to estates in cash ranging between five and seven figures.

• Take Val Kilmer, who died in 2025: he’ll appear via AI in the upcoming historical drama “As Deep as the Grave.” Kilmer’s AI-generated likeness (he signed on to the film years ago but never made it onto set) will reportedly be in more than an hour of the finished film, with his estate’s permission.

• Or James Earl Jones — the iconic voice behind Darth Vader — who reached an agreement before his death with Disney’s Lucasfilm to recreate his voice using AI for future “Star Wars” projects. But he may not have agreed to his Vader-voiced “Fortnite” character, if he knew users would make the Sith Lord say “skibidi toilet” and various curse words.

• Meanwhile, ElevenLabs lets users have text, PDFs, links, and audiobooks read aloud by departed stars such as Judy Garland, Burt Reynolds, John Wayne, Albert Einstein, and more (all with permission), and enough people are ponying up the $11-a-month fee that it’s sent the company’s valuation soaring.

• But AI is far from a pure boon for estates. CMG Worldwide, a legacy management firm with a client list including Jim Henson, Andre the Giant, and James Dean, refers to AI as an “unprecedented threat.” 

• And Zelda Williams, film director and daughter of Robin Williams, urged fans in a story on Instagram to stop sending her AI-generated videos of her father. “I concur concerning my father,” Bernice King, daughter of Martin Luther King Jr., wrote, adding, and we couldn’t agree more, “Please stop.”

The Takeaway

Imitating the dead for financial gain is nothing new, but what’s clear is that AI is making it easier — and harder to discern from the real thing than, say, a person in an Elvis jumpsuit singing in a casino. 

Meanwhile, the public’s view on this use of AI leans heavily negative, with one survey finding that 51% of respondents said replicating the voice of a deceased actor or celebrity was “not acceptable.” Still, the number of AI deals that involve “bringing back” dead celebrities continues to grow every day, as do the profits.

Go deeper

GameStop’s (rebuffed) bid to purchase eBay is famously half cash, half stock.

So, in order to try to evaluate whether eBay shareholders might like this deal or not, it helps to have some thoughts about what gives GameStop shares their value.

The three things that Sherwood News’ Luke Kawa believes help explain why the video game and collectibles retailer’s shares trade where they do (to varying degrees) are:

1. GameStop enjoys a “meme premium,” 

2. GameStop deserves a higher valuation in 2026 versus 2019 because it’s been a better-run company under CEO Ryan Cohen, and

3. GameStop bulls expect Cohen to do something transformative with the cash at his disposal.

GameStop went from perceived obsolescence to a market cap of $24 billion in a few months based on retail enthusiasm and a short squeeze. Shares mooned again when the messiah of the movement, Keith Gill, returned to the scene in 2024. The willingness of retail traders to support the company has produced eye-popping short-term upside in two instances, during which management raised more than $5 billion in cash. That’s right-tail risk up, left-tail risk down — an “earned” meme premium, one could say.

Cohen’s operational tactics have tamped down on left-tail risk. The retailer generates free cash flow under his leadership more consistently than it ever has. Cohen’s continuing to close locations that don’t offer enough bang for the buck, while selling, general, and administrative expenses are down materially.

But even if you buy reason No. 2 and are all in on “Captain Cohen,” as Bloomberg’s Matt Levine put it (and Kawa largely agrees!), “GameStop is really offering eBay shareholders nothing except Cohen.”

Unfortunately, Cohen’s day-to-day operational abilities don’t seem to be something the market has been focused on during his time at GameStop.

The Takeaway

What really hurts the case, in Kawa’s view, is the third bullet: transformation. To the extent that GameStop bulls were long the stock because Cohen could do something “genius or totally, totally foolish,” they were already pricing in the benefits of a successful acquisition! That weakens the case for eBay shareholders to accept the stock as currency to complete this transaction. 

Read more

Ever wondered what happens if an autonomous truck gets pulled over? In our interview with Roozbeh Charli, CEO of Einride, a Swedish freight technology company that builds electric and autonomous trucking systems, we chat about this and more, including Einride’s recent deal with Amazon and its move into defense vehicle tech.

Five-year vision

• Premarket earnings: Intuitive Machines and Ondas Inc.

• April retail sales 

• Postmarket earnings: Figma, Applied Materials, Infleqtion, United States Antimony Corp., Blaize Holdings, Gemini Space Station, Celcuity, and Navan