Voices of children killed in US school shootings created by AI to lobby for gun reform
ITV News US Correspondent Dan Rivers speaks to the parents of Parkland victim Joaquin Oliver who are using shock tactics to pressurise politicians.
The likeness is uncanny. Joaquin Oliver’s voice plays from a computer as his parents Patricia and Manuel listen, knowing their son died six years ago.
Through the magic of Artificial Intelligence computer experts have recreated the exact tone and manner of his speech, with one aim: to lobby for gun reform. Joaquin was murdered in one of America’s worst school shootings in Parkland Florida in 2018. Along with 16 others he was gunned down by a killer brandishing an AR15 assault rifle.
After years of fruitlessly lobbying politicians to tighten gun ownership laws, now his parents have switched to a more shocking tactic: using AI to make thousands of calls from beyond the grave. They told me how painful and emotional it was to craft and polish his computer generated voice until it was indistinguishable from the real thing.
But their discomfort at hearing their late son is part of the point. It is supposed to be uncomfortable. They hope it may change minds in Congress, where Republican lawmakers have traditionally opposed gun reform, claiming it would impinge on the Constitutional right to bear arms enshrined under the second amendment.
There are plenty outside Congress though, who remain uneasy about tighter controls on guns. We visited one gunshop in West Virginia where Richie Demaine showed me the bewildering array of weapons for sale. West Virginia has very loose controls on gun ownership. If you are 18 and not a convicted felon, you can buy a gun. Richie shows me guns she uses to train her children, insisting the problem is not guns, it is poorly trained people.
She carries a side arm for protection, in a rural community where the nearest police officer can be a long way off. Others use guns to hunt here. She has sympathy for the family of school shooting victims like Patricia and Manuel, but supports teachers being armed to combat intruders in the classroom. She thinks the problem of mass shootings is a result of mental illnesses being left untreated and that should be the focus of government policy.
The problem is America is facing a gun violence epidemic. The leading cause of death among children is now from a bullet not an illness or road accident. Every day on average 23 children are shot in the United States. Six of those die. Calls from the victims to politicians are unlikely to shift deeply entrenched views, but they are a reminder of the human toll of gun violence, which many on both sides of this debate want reduced.
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