Parents of half a dozen victims of gun violence used artificial intelligence (AI) to recreate their children’s voices in calls to Congress, urging lawmakers to change the country’s gun laws as part of a new campaign launched on the sixth anniversary of the Parkland, Fla., shooting.
The Shotline , created by gun control advocacy groups Change the Ref and March For Our Lives, allows people to send the AI-generated voices of six gun violence victims to members of Congress.
The voice of Joaquin Oliver — who was killed in the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. — is one of the six on the Shotline’s website. Oliver’s parents founded Change the Ref in his memory.
“Six years ago, I was a senior at Parkland,” Oliver’s AI-generated voice says. “Many students and teachers were murdered on Valentine’s Day that year by a person using an AR-15. But you don’t care. You never did. It’s been six years, and you’ve done nothing, not a thing to stop all the shootings that have continued to happen since.”