Top Spot of the Week: AI Restores Voices To Victims of Gun Violence As They Demand Change From Legislators

Guns are now the leading cause of death among children for the third consecutive year, sparing almost no neighborhood and falling particularly hard on Black and brown communities. And yet, politicians continue to offer their thoughts and prayers and make excuses. Today, parents, survivors, and advocates for gun safety will launch The Shotline, an automated platform and campaign that uses artificial intelligence to re-create the voices of innocent victims of gun violence so they can share, in their own voices, their harrowing stories. Each victim’s personal message will be sent as a phone call directly to lawmakers, again and again, to force them to confront the toll their inaction has taken.

Led by Change the Ref and March For Our Lives, The Shotline uses audio provided by victims’ families and deep machine learning to create a computerized version of each victim’s voice. Last year, more than 40,000 people lost their lives to guns, but they will not remain silent. Lawmakers will receive detailed calls from victims like Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School senior Joaquin Oliver, saying:

“Hello, I’m Joaquin Oliver. Six years ago, I was a senior at Parkland. 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 happened since.

“The thing is, I died that day in Parkland. My body was destroyed by a weapon of war. I’m back today because my parents used AI to re-create my voice to call you. Other victims like me will be calling too, again and again, to demand action. How many calls will it take for you to care? How many dead voices will you hear before you finally listen? Every day, your inaction creates more voices. If you fail to act now, we’ll find somebody who will.”

Ten-year-old Uziyah “Uzi” Garcia will also make calls with his story, saying:

“Hi! This is Uzi Garcia. I love video games, telling jokes and making my friends laugh, and jumping on the trampoline with my family. 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. That’s why my family re-created my voice using AI to call you today and demand a change. You’ll be getting more calls from others like me. I used to love helping people. What is it going to take for you to help make sure violence like this stops?”

At launch, representatives will receive direct calls from:

• Uziyah Garcia—10-year-old killed alongside 18 classmates and two teachers in the Uvalde school shooting at Robb Elementary School by a man with an AR-15
• Joaquin Oliver—17-year-old shot and killed by an AR-15 during a February 14, 2018, mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida
• Ethan Song—15-year-old killed by a gun left unsecured at a friend’s house
• Jaycee Webster—20-year-old shot and killed in his bedroom by a lone gunman
• Michael Baughan—died from a self-inflicted shot to the head using a gun he was able to purchase in only 15 minutes
• Akilah Dasilva —23-year-old killed by a man with an AR-15 in a Waffle House mass shooting

Developed in partnership with MullenLowe, the campaign will also invite the public to share their own stories with the platform and send AI-generated messages from other victims across the country.

Change the Ref founders Manuel and Patricia Oliver, parents of Parkland shooting victim Joaquin Oliver, along with members of March For Our Lives, will launch The Shotline campaign in a rally outside the U.S. Capitol on February 14, six years to the day after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Youth activists and families of gun violence victims are returning to Washington to continue demanding immediate action from the Biden administration and state lawmakers.

“Some might judge me because I’m using artificial intelligence to re-create the voice of my murdered son,” Manuel Oliver said. “Let us judge politicians that use their organic intelligence to do nothing to save lives.”

The Shotline platform includes a searchable database of public contact information for state representatives, allowing people to easily call lawmakers directly to voice their opinions. The Shotline also provides a form that allows people to submit lost loved ones to be voices on the platform. Each new submission will go through a verification process to confirm identities and approvals to re-create each victim’s story. 

Production company on the project was Edisen, with Mirko Lempert serving as AI creative designer.