The focus is on a few sentences of what an unknowing audience member would believe to be recorded audio of Bourdain, who died by suicide in 2018.
And documentary experts who frequently consider ethical questions in nonfiction films are sharply divided.
Using archival footage and interviews with Bourdain’s closest friends and colleagues, Neville looks at how Bourdain became a worldwide figure and explores his devastating death at the age of 61.
Ottavia Busia, the chef’s second wife, with whom he shared a daughter, appeared to criticize the decision in a Twitter post, writing that she would not have given the filmmakers permission to use the A.I.
For example, the documentarian Ken Burns hires actors to voice long-dead historical figures.
But in those cases, it was clear to the audience that what they were seeing and hearing was not authentic.
Quinn compared the technique to one that the director Steve James used in a 2014 documentary about the Chicago film critic Roger Ebert, who, when the film was made, could not speak after losing part of his jaw in cancer surgery.
To some, part of the discomfort about the use of artificial intelligence is the fear that deepfake videos may become increasingly pervasive.