Filmmaker used AI to re-create Anthony Bourdain quotes in new Roadrunner documentary

The director of a new Anthony Bourdain documentary admits he used artificial intelligence and computer algorithms to get the late food personality to utter things he never said on the record. Bourdain, who killed himself in a Paris hotel suite in June 2018, is the subject of the new documentary, Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain. It features the prolific author, chef and TV host in his own words--taken from television and radio appearances, podcasts, and audiobooks. But, in a few instances, filmmaker Morgan Neville says he used some technological tricks to put words in Bourdain's mouth. As The New Yorker's Helen Rosner reported, in the second half of the film, L.A. artist David Choe reads from an email Bourdain sent him: 'Dude, this is a crazy thing to ask, but I'm curious...' You are successful, and I am successful, and I'm wondering: Are you happy?' Rosner asked Neville, who also directed the 2018 Mr. Rogers documentary, Won't You Be My Neighbor?, how he possibly found audio of Bourdain reading an email he sent someone else.