Ozzy Osbourne’s son Jack supports late singer’s AI avatar despite Hollywood backlash against new tech

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Jack Osbourne, the son of Ozzy Osbourne, has defended the life-sized AI-powered avatar of his father, which would reportedly be able to perform, speak with fans, and move like the legend.

Jack and his mother Sharon announced the AI avatar of the ‘Prince of Darkness’, who died in July last year at the age of 76, on May 20 at Licensing Expo, an event for brands in Las Vegas.

At the event, the businesswoman, 73, also stated that “Elvis died 50 years ago and everybody knows Elvis. I just want that for Ozzy.”

Jack Osbourne defends Ozzy’s AI-powered avatar

But the step taken by Ozzy’s family in partnership with Hyperreal and Proto Hologram received a lot of backlash from fans. Now, Jack has hit back at the criticism during a recent YouTube livestream.

“Here's the thing, it's gonna be so tasteful what we're doing. It's not gonna be lame,” he shared.

The media personality further said, “It's really complex what we're doing. This isn't just like hooking up an image of my dad to ChatGPT. This is some high-level technology that we’re gonna be working with, and it’s gonna feel very real, and it’s kind of wild how it will be utilized.”

Ozzy Osbourne ‘would be into’ AI avatar, says son Jack

Jack also claimed that he discussed this with the ‘Black Sabbath’ co-founder before his death.

“It's really cool, and it's something that I think my dad would be into. We actually talked about it before he passed, about doing something like this… I know he would be into this,” he added.

Ozzy Osbourne AI avatar can talk to fans

The youngest child of Ozzy and Sharon had also spoken highly about his dad’s AI avatar at the announcement.

At the time, he said, “It’s kind of scary how it’s really very accurate. He will exist digitally as himself for as long as we have computers. Technology has come such a long way to where it’s almost drag and drop.”

His mother Sharon also supported him by asserting, “We’re going to take it all around the world. People can talk to him and he will talk back.”

Besides, Hyperreal CEO Remington Scott justified the digitization of Ozzy as he explained that “every element” of the digital singer "was built exclusively from authenticated, approved source material: curated, consented, and controlled by the people who love him most.”

Scarlett Johansson joins Hollywood anti-AI campaign

This came after many celebrities, including Scarlett Johansson, Cate Blanchett, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, opposed AI and joined a campaign named ‘Stealing Isn’t Innovation’.

As per a January report, one of the campaign’s proclamations states: “Big Tech is trying to change the law so they can keep stealing American artistry to build their AI businesses, without authorization and without paying the people who did the work. That is wrong; it’s un-American, and it’s theft on a grand scale.”