Jim Acosta, a former White House correspondent for CNN, sparked controversy on Monday due to a conversation with the resuscitation version of someone who died more than seven years ago. His guest was the avatar of Joaquin Oliver, one of 17 people killed in the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.
This video shows Oliver, taken in real photos and animated with generative artificial intelligence, wearing a beanie with a rigorous representation. Acosta asks the avatar, “What happened to you?”
“I appreciate your curiosity,” Oliver responds in a hurry, monotonous manner, without inflection or pause due to punctuation. “I was taken out of this world too early for gun violence while I was at school. It's important to talk about these issues. The avatar's narration is robust and computerized. Its face and mouth movements are jerky and unnatural, making it seem like a dub-over than the real people are talking about.
Oliver was 17 when he was shot dead in the hallway at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School. Since Parkland, a reporting project on shooting victims, teenagers have loved writing, and that day came to school on Valentine's Day and had flowers for his girlfriend. He would have been 25 on Monday.
Acosta said interviews on social media will be “a show you don't want to miss” and “one of the kind interviews.” The former correspondent now describes himself as an independent journalist and posts content on the Substack blog after breaking up with CNN in January.
The former CNN anchor quickly faced criticism online in response to the stunt. One of the many angry users of the social media platform posted that BlueSky posted.
Acosta said in the video segment that Oliver's parents had created an AI version of his son and his father, Manuel Oliver. Acosta also spoke to Manuel Oliver in the video, saying, “It felt like I was talking to Joaquin. It's just beautiful.”
The victim's father said he understood this was an AI version of his son and that he could not bring him back, but it was a blessing to hear his voice again. He said he's looking forward to seeing what AI can do more.
Acosta's conversation is not the first time AI has been used to regain Parkland's casualties. Last year, the parents of several victims launched a robocall campaign called The Shotline, along with the voices of six students and staff who were killed in mass shootings. The idea was to use the voice of AI to call members of Congress and demand action on gun reform. Oliver was one of the victims of the project.
“I'm back today as my parents use AI to recreate their voices and call you out,” Oliver's message said. “How many phone calls do you take to care? How many dead voices do you hear before you finally hear?”
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Using AI to speak to the recreation of the dead is an ongoing task of progress with imperfect movements and voices, and is ingrained in ethical controversy. Critics say that creating digitalized computer avatars of real people and allowing them to stand up for the deceased will open the doors of misinformation, deepfakes, fraud, fraud, and fraud, making it difficult to distinguish whether people are real or not.
Similarly, AI avatars are used to simulate speeches from victims of crime. In May, an AI version of a man killed in a road rage case in Arizona appeared at a court hearing. The lawyer played an AI video of the victim talking to his suspicious murderer in an Impact statement. “I'm a god who believes in forgiveness and forgives. I have always had it and still do,” said the victim's avatar.
The judge responded favorably. “I loved that AI, thank you for that. I'm just as angry as you, just as angry as my family, I heard forgiveness,” he said. “I feel it's real.”
