On the anniversary of the 2018 school shooting at Marjory Stoneman-Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, the anti-gunner lobby has rolled out a new initiative to persuade the public to support more restrictions on firearms.
Anti-gunner organization March for Our Lives, in conjunction with Change the Ref, has launched a campaign using the voices of victims of school shootings recreated by artificial intelligence. The groups are reportedly using the technology to send audio recording messages to members of Congress using the recreated voices of the victims.
The audio is one of six AI-generated voice messages from young people killed by gun violence, part of a new campaign launched last week by two groups, March For Our Lives and Change the Ref, to urge lawmakers to act on gun control.
“My wife and I have been trying to use our voices for the last six years. Nonstop. We have tried almost every single way to approach gun violence in a way that people will pay attention. We haven’t been very successful,” says Manuel Oliver, who founded the Change the Ref advocacy group in memory of his son after the 2018 shooting in Florida.
“So we decided, you know what? Let’s bring the voices of our loved ones. Let’s bring the voice of Joaquin.”
One of the children whose voice is being used was tragically murdered during the shooting in Uvalde, Texas.
Uzi Garcia, 10, who died in May 2022, is one of the six children featured in the campaign.
“I love video games, telling jokes and making my friends laugh and jumping on the trampoline with my family,” Uzi’s AI-generated voice says in his message. “I’m a fourth grader at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. Or at least I was when a man with an AR-15 came into my school and killed 18 of my classmates, two teachers, and me. That was almost two years ago. Nothing has changed. Even more shootings have happened.”
Uzi’s father, Brett Cross, told CNN he spent hours going through old playground videos on his phone to get the right audio of Uzi’s voice. He says he worked with the campaign’s technology team to make sure the pitch was just right and he listened to Uzi’s AI voice over and over before he signed off on its use.
“It was bittersweet because we get to hear his voice again,” he says. “But he should be here to speak for himself, and he’s not. So we have to get more and more creative to get these politicians to listen to us.”
The chilling use of AI technology not only brings a new dimension to gun control advocacy but it has also elicited controversy and criticism even though the parents of the deceased children have given their permission.
But for some, using AI-generated voices of dead people in a gun control campaign may raise ethical concerns.
“It does seem to kind of straddle the line between a good use of AI and something that’s questionable,” says Robert Wahl, an associate professor of computer science at Concordia University Wisconsin and an expert on the ethics of AI technology.
Creating AI voices is a nuanced process that involves numerous adjustments to make sure the inflection, timing and pitch are as close as possible to the original voice and don’t sound robotic, he says.
“It’s interesting because Hollywood has been doing this kind of thing for a while with recreating dead actors,” he told CNN. “And of course the technology is evolving almost on a daily basis. But I think it’s nice to be able to recreate a voice, as long as it’s OK with the immediate family.”
Others have also expressed discomfort with the ploy, referring to it as “ghoulish,” according to one of the parents involved. “If you think it’s uncomfortable hearing my son’s voice after he’s passed, imagine what it’s like to us – to live with this every day,” he said.
Nevertheless, this new strategy on the part of the anti-gunner lobby, as disturbing as it is, might be a new weapon in the anti-gunner’s arsenal. There’s no doubt the emotional appeal of such a campaign could be leveraged to great effect.
However, the fact remains that none of the gun control laws that progressives put forth whenever there is a mass shooting would have saved any of these children’s lives. The facts say that criminals who wish to commit a gun crime will do so regardless of what the law tells them to do.
Even more unfortunate is the reality that the fixation on gun control legislation serves as a distraction for those seeking actual solutions that could decrease these tragedies. Instead of looking at security measures and other courses of action that might really work, these parents and their children are being exploited for a purpose that has nothing to do with safeguarding children.
