Six years after the Parkland high school shooting that killed 17, artificial intelligence has been used to recreate the voices of six gun violence victims to call for action. The campaign, called The Shotline, launches on the anniversary of the 2018 Valentine’s Day massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida.
The project, backed by activist groups March for Our Lives and Change the Ref, harnesses AI to generate direct messages from the deceased. Families supplied audio clips which were trained by deep machine learning to produce the recordings. Visitors to the website can enter their zip code to send a message to their elected representative in Congress.
Among the voices is Joaquin Oliver, who was 17 when he was killed at Parkland. His message says: “It’s been six years and you’ve done nothing. Not a thing to stop all the shootings that have happened since.” His parents, Manny and Patricia, founded Change the Ref after his death. Patricia described the process of gathering clips from cellphones and videos as emotionally taxing, but said hearing her son’s recreated voice was a shock. “I know this is an illusion, but in that moment you forget,” she said.
Other victims include Ethan Song, 15, who died in an accident involving an unsecured gun at a friend’s house in Connecticut; Uziyah Garcia, 10, killed in the 2022 Uvalde school shooting; Akilah Dasilva, 23, shot in a 2018 Waffle House attack in Tennessee; Jaycee Webster, 20, killed by intruders in Maryland; and Mike Baughan, who died by suicide with a gun purchased in 15 minutes. Baughan’s death led to Maryland’s first red flag gun laws.
Patricia Oliver said the campaign aims to make lawmakers hear what families hear every day. “We can all hear our kids’ voices in our heads. Why shouldn’t lawmakers have to hear them too?” said Mike Song, Ethan’s father. The Olivers hope the AI voices will keep their son’s memory alive and force a change in US gun legislation.
