The use of celebrity likeness for AI videos is spiraling out of control, and one of Hollywood’s biggest stars is not having it.

Despite the use of AI in online videos being fairly new, it has already become a trope to use an artificial version of a celebrity’s voice for content relating to news, violence, or history.

‘I don’t appreciate it, and I get paid for doing stuff like that.’

This is particularly true when it comes to satirical videos that are meant to sound like documentaries. Creators love to use recognizable voices, like David Attenborough’s and, of course, Morgan Freeman’s, whose voice has become so recognizable that others have labeled him as “the voice of God.”

However, the 88-year-old Freeman is not pleased about his voice being replicated. In an interview with the Guardian, he said that while some actors like James Earl Jones (who played Darth Vader) have consented to his voice being imitated with computers, he has not.

“I’m a little PO’d, you know,” Freeman told the outlet. “I’m like any other actor: Don’t mimic me with falseness. I don’t appreciate it, and I get paid for doing stuff like that, so if you’re gonna do it without me, you’re robbing me.”

Freeman explained that his lawyers have been “very, very busy” in pursuing “many … quite a few” cases in which his voice was replicated without his consent.

In the same interview, the Memphis native was also not shy about criticizing the concept of AI actors.

RELATED: Hollywood’s newest star isn’t human — and why that’s ‘disturbing’

Photo by Chris Haston/WBTV via Getty Images

Freeman was asked about Tilly Norwood, the AI character introduced by Dutch actress Eline Van der Velden in 2025. The pretend-world character is meant to be an avatar mimicking celebrity status, while also cutting costs in the casting room.

“Nobody likes her because she’s not real and that takes the part of a real person,” Freeman jabbed. “So it’s not going to work out very well in the movies or in television. … The union’s job is to keep actors acting, so there’s going to be that conflict.”

Freeman spoke out about the use of his voice in 2024, as well. According to a report by 4 News Now, a TikTok creator posted a video claiming to be Freeman’s niece and used an artificial version of his voice to narrate the video.

In response, Freeman wrote on X, “Thank you to my incredible fans for your vigilance and support in calling out the unauthorized use of an A.I. voice imitating me.”

He added, “Your dedication helps authenticity and integrity remain paramount. Grateful.”

RELATED: Meet AI ‘actress’ Tilly Norwood. Is she really the future of entertainment?

Norwood is not the first attempt at taking an avatar mainstream. In 2022, Capitol Records flirted with an AI rapper named FN Meka; the very idea that the rapper was even signed to a label was historic in the first place.

The rapper, or more likely its representatives, were later dropped from the label after activists claimed the character reinforced racial stereotypes.

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A criminal illegal alien is expected to be deported more than a decade after his deportation order, but CNN’s coverage of the case buries the violent details of his past. The Department of Homeland Security set the record straight as the criminal illegal alien is set to finally be removed Monday.

According to the DHS, Russian-born Roman Antatolevich Surovtsev was arrested on August 1 by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

‘It’s alarming that CNN can ALWAYS be counted on to run cover for VIOLENT FELONS. Imagine if they showed the same care for American citizens.’

He is expected to be deported Monday in compliance with a final order of removal issued by an immigration judge in November 2014.

CNN described Surovtsev as a “stateless person” given the fact that he fled the USSR and surrendered his citizenship. The 2014 deportation order also revoked his green card, the sole condition for his remaining in the United States.

RELATED: ‘Climbing into the ceiling tiles’: DHS immigration raids hit Charlotte, where 1 in 6 residents are foreign-born

Photo by Ryan Murphy/Getty Images

He has since routinely checked in with Immigration and Customs Enforcement until his arrest in August.

CNN, however, added a very different spin to the story, touting Surovtsev as a “loving dad” and a different person after a life of crime.

Only after more than a dozen paragraphs and a long litany of heart-wrenching familial anecdotes does CNN hint at Surovtsev’s violent past: “In 2003, at 19 years old, Surovtsev began serving a 13-year sentence after helping some friends commit an armed carjacking of a motorcycle.”

And this is only the tip of the iceberg.

Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin noted that Surovtsev has a “history of violence” with a rap sheet including “assault with a deadly weapon, multiple counts of burglary, multiple counts of carjacking, carjacking with a firearm, trespassing onto private property, multiple counts of taking a vehicle without owner consent, possession of a hypodermic needle/syringe, receiving stolen property, multiple counts of conspiracy to commit a crime.”

In a statement on X, the Department of Homeland Security added that Surovtsev committed many of those offenses as an adult and accused CNN of covering for criminals: “It’s alarming that CNN can ALWAYS be counted on to run cover for VIOLENT FELONS. Imagine if they showed the same care for American citizens.”

Surovtsev will reportedly be boarding a plane Monday to Ukraine along with 82 other deportees, according to a statement obtained by CNN.

“On Monday, the U.S. government plans to deport 83 people to Ukraine, where they will be conscripted into the army and likely killed. Ukraine is a police state where the population lives under martial law,” Surovtsev’s attorneys, Eric Lee and Chris Godshall-Bennett, said in an emailed statement.

“Under President Trump and Secretary Noem, if you break the law, you will face the consequences. Criminal illegal aliens are not welcome in the U.S.,” the Department of Homeland Security added.

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President Trump recently made a comment on H-1B visas during an interview in the Oval Office with Laura Ingraham on Fox News — and his base is not happy.

“There’s never going to be a country like what we have right now,” Trump told Ingraham, who asked, “And does that mean the H-1B visa thing will not be a big priority for your administration? Because if you want to raise wages for American workers, you can’t flood the country with tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of foreign workers.”

“Well, I agree, but you also do have to bring in talent,” Trump responded.

“We have plenty of talented people here,” Ingraham argued, to which Trump shockingly replied, “No, you don’t. No, you don’t.”

“You don’t have talented people here?” Ingraham asked.

“No, you don’t … you don’t have certain talents and … people have to learn,” he replied, before digging his heels in further.

“President Trump received and is continuing to receive a tremendous amount of blowback from this, including from people in his own base,” says BlazeTV host Liz Wheeler, who is shocked by Trump’s comments and points out that one of Charlie Kirk’s last messages to the American people was on the same topic.

However, Kirk had a much different take than the president.

“This is the social compact breaking down,” Kirk wrote in a post on X, adding, “We need urgency to restore it:

1 – Mass deportations

2 – Stop the H-1B scam

3 – Dramatically reduce LEGAL Immigration

4 – End chain migration and the Visa Lottery

5 – Build 10 million homes for Americans

6 – Crush the College Cartel.”

The post was accompanied by a graph depicting the percentage of 30-year-olds who are both married and homeowners between 1950 to 2025. The number dropped from over 50% to below 15%.

The post went viral, because according to Wheeler, “President Trump’s base understands and feels very betrayed by the government officials who have, for a generation now, imported foreigners and given those foreigners our jobs, given those foreigners our welfare benefits, given those foreigners our homes, given those foreigners access to our food and our education and our health care system.”

“No one, I think, is arguing against certain genius visas. If there are certain positions that are incredibly hard to fill, that take incredibly talented, exceptional people, and we need to recruit from all around the world for that, OK, we can make exceptions to that,” Wheeler says.

“But it should be the exception, not the rule,” she continues. “The H-1B visa scam is a scam because it’s become the rule. Companies across the country first look for H-1B visa applicants to hire because they can take advantage of them. They can pay them less. They can demand more.”

“When our resources are used by foreigners,” she adds, “Well, American citizens suffer.”

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President Donald Trump appeared to change his mind about the Epstein files and told Republicans he supported their release after hinting at opposing it.

He expressed his wishes in a post on Truth Social Sunday where he repeated his claim that the controversy regarding the files was a “hoax” perpetrated by the Democrats to distract the public from Trump’s victories.

‘Let’s start talking about the Republican Party’s Record Setting Achievements, and not fall into the Epstein “TRAP,” which is actually a curse on the Democrats, not us.’

“House Republicans should vote to release the Epstein files, because we have nothing to hide, and it’s time to move on from this Democrat Hoax perpetrated by Radical Left Lunatics in order to deflect from the Great Success of the Republican Party, including our recent Victory on the Democrat ‘Shutdown,'” he posted.

He pointed out that the Justice Dept. had already turned over documents related to Epstein and made them publicly available.

“The House Oversight Committee can have whatever they are legally entitled to, I DON’T CARE!” he added.

The vote to release the files in the U.S. House may take place on Tuesday after Democratic Rep. Adelita Grijalva of Arizona was finally seated and became the last name necessary to pass the congressional motion.

Democrats had suggested that the president was opposed to the release because of some kind of complicity or knowledge of Epstein’s crimes, which Trump has denied.

“Donald Trump keeps crying ‘hoax’ when pressed on releasing the Epstein files,” wrote Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff of California. “But the American people deserve to know what evidence a convicted child sex trafficker had that he said could ‘take down’ Trump.”

RELATED: CNN anchor visibly upset when analyst says outrage over Epstein files has not hurt Trump at all

“Some ‘members’ of the Republican Party are being ‘used,’ and we can’t let that happen,” the president concluded. “Let’s start talking about the Republican Party’s Record Setting Achievements, and not fall into the Epstein ‘TRAP,’ which is actually a curse on the Democrats, not us.”

A judge had previously said there were names in the files that would change the lives of well-known people if they were released to the public. Many of those have been allowed to fight the release of their identities through the legal process.

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The Illinois Senate president’s office was subject to an armed robbery last week after a long history of leading efforts to crack down on police in the wake of Black Lives Matter protests and the death of George Floyd.

Democrat Senate President Don Harmon’s office was robbed at knifepoint on Friday, NBC 5 Chicago reported.

‘The Senate president … remains dedicated to ensuring that the laws in Illinois reflect that Black Lives Matter.’

According to reports, Scott Loeffler, 35, is suspected to have entered Harmon’s Constituent Service Office in Oak Park. After a brief exchange, a staffer found herself being held at knifepoint, with her phone in the suspect’s hand.

Loeffler allegedly entered the office at 11:11 a.m. and was arrested at approximately 12:51 p.m., almost two hours later. The staffer’s husband was able to track her phone after the suspect fled the scene.

RELATED: Video: Masked smash-and-grab robbers don’t look so scary when jewelry store owner pulls his gun and opens fire

John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images

Loeffler has been charged with felony armed robbery by the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office.

In a statement, Harmon thanked the local police department and expressed his relief that his staff members were unharmed.

“I want to thank the Oak Park Police Department for a quick response, and I want to thank my staff for their bravery and unwavering commitment to public service. Their safety is my top priority,” Harmon said in his statement.

The Democrat added that there was no evidence that the robbery was “politically motivated.”

Harmon, for his part, has spent several years pushing legislation that has been criticized as “soft on crime.” For example, Harmon “worked closely with the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus to advance a reform agenda founded on four pillars: criminal justice reform; education and workforce development; economic access, equity and opportunity; and health care and human services.”

Harmon’s website adds, “The Senate president understands the importance of these changes and remains dedicated to ensuring that the laws in Illinois reflect that Black Lives Matter.”

The law, known as Safety, Accountability, Fairness and Equity-Today Act, was the subject of heated debate since it abolished cash bail and reformed several policing policies.

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Hunter Biden emphasized in a recent interview that his allies on the “leaderless” left should not tone down their extreme rhetoric in the wake of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk’s assassination — but rather ramp it up against the MAGA movement.

After Biden suggested to “Wide Awake Podcast” host Joshua Rubin that Kirk was a representative of hate and should not be posthumously honored, the former president’s son was asked whether it was time for the left and right to tone down their rhetoric.

‘We need people to see … it for what it is.’

“Do you think the conversation should be about turning the temperature down completely on both sides?” asked Rubin.

“What I haven’t seen is people going, ‘We need to look at extremism in general and turn down the temperature.'”

“Yeah, no,” said Biden. “That’s not going to happen, Josh.”

Biden — whose father let him off the hook last year for his felony conviction on gun charges, his felony tax offenses, and whatever else he may have been involved in between January 2014 and December 2024 — prefaced his accelerationist proposal with, “I’m going to get myself in trouble for saying this.”

“We need to turn the temperature up,” continued Biden. “We need to turn the temperature up, and we need people to see … it for what it is.”

RELATED: The Antifa mob at Berkeley showed us what evil looks like

Leftists staged mock executions of an effigy of the president at a No Kings rally in Chicago. Photo by Jim Vondruska/Getty Images

Recent polling suggests the temperature is sufficiently high on the left, where Democrat politicians such as Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett seem to freely recommend and/or downplay violence against their opponents.

A survey conducted by the Network Contagion Research Institute and Rutgers University’s Social Perception Lab revealed in April that 55% of respondents who identified as left of center said that assassinating Trump would be at least somewhat justified.

When asked by pollsters about the September 2024 attempt on the president’s life at his golf course in Florida, 28% of Democrats told RMG Research it would have been better if Trump had been gunned down.

A recent Marist Poll found that 28% agreed or strongly agreed with the statement “Americans may have to resort to violence in order to get the country back on track.”

“I do not believe that we are going to get to the bottom until we get to the bottom,” said Biden, whose father smeared his political opponents as “extremists” and dubbed President Donald Trump’s supporters “garbage.”

Hunter Biden added, “I want to get to the bottom faster rather than through this slow kind of process of just being picked apart, a death by a thousand cuts here.”

After clarifying that he was “100% not saying that it needs to be violence,” Biden castigated liberal talking heads such as CNN’s Jake Tapper for supposedly not being antagonistic enough to the Trump administration.

Biden appeared desperate to suggest that political extremism is predominantly a right-wing issue, casting doubt on whether Charlie Kirk was assassinated because of his beliefs and and whether the assassin was a leftist and suggesting that Kirk’s killer was a disciple of right-wing commentator Nick Fuentes.

A recent Center for Strategic and International Studies report indicated that the first half of this year was marked by a significant increase in left-wing terrorist attacks and plots in the United States — and that those attacks are set to hit 30-year highs. While leftist terrorism is on the rise, right-wing incidents have dropped precipitously.

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Texas state laws ban doctors from giving guidance on transgender medicine and procedures on minors — but the Texas Medical Association is still doing it.

“Sometimes I even think, ‘Well, that’s behind us now.’ It’s actually not. Even here in the state of Texas because despite the fact that Texas outlawed this awful, brutal practice mutilating healthy body parts of children … there still seem to be doctors and associations that are trying to carry out this disgusting, brutal torture ritual,” BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales says on “Sara Gonzales Unfiltered.”

Gonzales pulls out a recent “lesson” from Texas Medical Association doctors where they claim that as primary care physicians, they “play a vital role in transgender and gender diverse … health care.”

“With a significant increase in TGD individuals seeking care, staying informed about best practices is essential. By understanding gender identity development and offering tailored support, you can improve outcomes and build trust,” the lesson states.

“They even make sure to highlight that this is for adolescent and adult care,” Gonzales says, noting that the lesson is $199.

“Wow, what a bargain to create a patient for life. Incredible,” she says.

Senate Bill 14 took effect in September 2023 and prohibits “gender transition” medical interventions, such as surgeries, puberty blockers, and cross sex hormones for minors — and Texas state Rep. Steve Toth (R) is trying to raise awareness that the law is being ignored.

“Has the Texas Medical Association responded to any of this?” Gonzales asks Toth, who responds, “Not a word.”

One mom from Florida, January Littlejohn, has become an activist in helping parents across the country get justice for their children.

“She said, ‘President Trump is trying to shut all this stuff down,’ but she said, ‘I’m getting swarmed now all across the United States with moms and dads calling me, telling me that their kids are being transitioned primarily in red states like Texas where we’ve banned it,’” Toth tells Gonzales.

“How is this happening?” Gonzales asks.

“The big mistake, the big failure from the 88th legislative session is we didn’t ban social transitioning. We banned the chemical and surgical transitioning, but we did not ban the social transitioning,” Toth explains.

“And so what you’re seeing happen now in the Texas Medical Association is they’re teaching doctors at like Texas Children’s and Methodists that here’s what you do, you just say that you’re going to put this little girl on Lupron, which is a puberty blocker, and you say that it’s for precocious puberty,” he continues.

“It’s not to transition her, it’s for precocious puberty. And then once she goes through … puberty, once she goes through that, then she’s going to be put on a cross sex hormone like testosterone and that’s really easy to get. You just get someone, a doctor from, you know, New Mexico or Arizona, to send that to you and now all of a sudden, she’s good to go,” he adds.

While those administering these treatments claim they’re “reversible,” Toth explains that they’re “not reversible at all.”

“You can’t just try and go through puberty at age 20. It doesn’t work that way,” he adds.

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Masked robbers clad in dark clothing quickly took over a California jewelry store last week, as surveillance video shows them fanning out and smashing display cases in a brazen heist.

This is, until the owner of the store came into the camera frame with his gun and opened fire.

‘It’s shocking to the conscience. It’s scary to the family because it is a mom-and-pop store with family being your own employees, it’s your own business and your livelihood.’

The imposing crew suddenly looked quite overmatched as they stumbled and sprinted out the store.

The incident at Olivia’s Fine Jewelry in Madera took place around 7 p.m. Thursday, KFSN-TV reported. Madera is about a half hour northwest of Fresno.

Four of the crooks took part in the smash-and-grab while one stayed by the door as a lookout, KFSN said. Video shows the lookout holding the door open for the rest of the crew as they ran out of the store to get clear of the gunfire.

After the robbers ran into the parking lot, video shows the owner on the sidewalk in front of the store still shooting at the fleeing crooks.

RELATED: Video: Over 20 thugs try breaking into jewelry store. But gun-toting store owner isn’t about to let them get away with it.

“It’s shocking to the conscience. It’s scary to the family because it is a mom-and-pop store with family being your own employees, it’s your own business and your livelihood,” Madera Police Sgt. Blake Short told KFSN.

The robbers took with them an estimated $170,000 in jewelry, the station said, and authorities added that no one was hit by gunfire.

“I believe the store owner did what he felt was necessary at the time. We don’t always recommend that in this field. Fortunately, no one was harmed in this situation,” Short added to KFSN.

The station said authorities were able to recover the getaway car, described as a dark gray Audi, and that the suspects ditched it just outside of the Madera city limits.

Police also called the robbery sophisticated, KFSN said, adding that the suspects had a clear plan.

Short noted to the station that a “preliminary investigation shows that they were kind of in the area for a little while … we would say in our field ‘casing the business.’ This was definitely meticulous. It was thought out. It did not appear to be a first time for these individuals.”

Veronica Casillas, an employee of a nearby store, told KFSN that “it was very scary. We heard just a loud noise, and I told the manager ‘I think those gunshots.'”

The investigation is ongoing, the station said, and no additional descriptions of the suspects have been released.

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