Jody Serrano
Editor in chiefEditor in Chief at Xataka On. Before joining Webedia, I was a tech reporter at Gizmodo and The Messenger. While I've covered all sorts of things related to technology, I'm specialized in writing about social media, Internet culture, Twitch, and streamers.
In recent months, AI has become infamous for copying art styles and replacing workers, making it seem like the technology is always in the spotlight for doing something questionable. However, a case in Arizona shows us that there are still many positive and unexplored uses for AI.
One of them involves bringing back the dead.
A victim named Chris. In 2021, 37-year-old Chris Pelkey, an army combat veteran, was shot during an act of road rage by 50-year-old Gabriel Horcasitas. The 50-year-old shot Pelkey at a red light when the younger man exited his car and started walking back towards him in Chandler, Arizona.
Waiting for a sentence. While Horcasitas was found guilty of manslaughter for Pelkey’s death, there was still the matter of sentencing. As reported by local outlet Fox 10, Pelkey’s sister, Stacey Wales, was collecting victim impact statements to present to the judge when she realized “there was one missing piece.” It was Pelkey.
Wales worked with her husband and a family friend to bring back Pelkey using AI to allow him to speak at his own sentencing hearing. It wasn’t easy.
“There's no tool out there that you can just go and say, here's a voice file. Here's a picture. Please make it come to life. And this is what I wanted to say,” Wales told Fox 10. “So, they're scrounging and using this tool and that tool and this tool and this script and this audio and this image and trying to mash it all together and make a Frankenstein of love.”
Eventually, they managed to create a simple video. It was ready for the judge.
The message. Deciding what Pelkey would say was another matter, though. Wales explained that she had her own opinions about what she wanted Horcasitas’ sentence to be and whether she forgave the shooter, but that it wasn’t about her, it was about Pelkey.
In the end, Pelkey forgave Horcasitas in the script written by his sister.
“To Gabriel Horcasitas, the man who shot me: It is a shame we encountered each other that day in those circumstances,” the AI version of Pelkey said in the video. “In another life, we probably could have been friends. I believe in forgiveness and God who forgives. I always have, and still do.”
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The judge. The use of AI impacted Judge Todd Lang, who oversaw the sentencing.
"I love that AI. Thank you for that. I felt like that was genuine, that his obvious forgiveness of Mr. Horcasitas reflects the character I heard about today,” Lang said.
Lang sentenced Horcasitas to nearly 13 years in prison for his crime.
Images | Fox 10
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