{"id":542623,"date":"2026-03-24T16:22:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T16:22:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/542623\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T16:22:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T16:22:07","slug":"netflixs-new-red-hot-chili-peppers-doc-uses-ai-to-voice-founding-guitarist-hillel-slovak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/542623\/","title":{"rendered":"Netflix\u2019s New Red Hot Chili Peppers Doc Uses AI to Voice Founding Guitarist Hillel Slovak"},"content":{"rendered":"

Netflix\u2019s new documentary about the early days of the Red Hot Chili Peppers<\/a> and the influence of their founding guitarist, Hillel Slovak, uses an AI voiceover of the late musician reading through his personal journals.<\/p>\n

Director Ben Feldman doesn\u2019t shy away from the use of artificial intelligence to regenerate Slovak\u2019s voice in The Rise of the Red Hot Chili Peppers: Our Brother, Hillel, including a notice early on in the film that the audio was digitally reconstructed.<\/p>\n

More from Rolling Stone<\/p>\n

Feldman previously explained<\/a> that he obtained the blessing of Slovak\u2019s family to use AI and have \u201cHillel\u2019s voice reading his own journals,\u201d believing it was \u201ca critical way to make his [words] feel alive.\u201d<\/p>\n

The film features in-depth camera interviews with Red Hot Chili Peppers frontman Anthony Kiedis<\/a> and Michael \u201cFlea\u201d Balzary, supplemented by Slovak\u2019s journal entries to tell the story of how the trio became best friends while attending the same Los Angeles-area high school in the late 1970s and early 1980s.<\/p>\n

The documentary tracks the band\u2019s early days, navigating the rock and punk scenes before becoming the now-iconic group. Slovak played on the band\u2019s first three studio albums before dying aged 26 of an accidental heroin overdose in 1988.<\/p>\n

The band has made clear the Netflix documentary <\/a>is not an official Red Hot Chili Peppers project, saying in January that they had \u201cnothing to do with it creatively.\u201d \u201cWe agreed to be interviewed out of love and respect for Hillel and his memory,\u201d they said in a statement<\/a>. \u201cThe central subject of this current Netflix special is Hillel Slovak, and we hope it sparks interest in him and his work.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Rise of the Red Hot Chili Peppers: Our Brother, Hillel began streaming on Netflix on Friday, March 20, after premiering at SXSW in Austin on March 13.<\/p>\n

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