An AI avatar made to look and sound like the likeness of a man who was killed in a road rage incident addressed the court and the man who killed him: “To Gabriel Horcasitas, the man who shot me, it is a shame we encountered each other that day in those circumstances,” the AI avatar of Christopher Pelkey said. “In another life we probably could have been friends. I believe in forgiveness and a God who forgives. I still do.”

It was the first time the AI avatar of a victim—in this case, a dead man—has ever addressed a court, and it raises many questions about the use of this type of technology in future court proceedings.

  • Wilco@lemm.ee
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    12 hours ago

    This is fucking stupid. No one has the right to fake another person’s appearance in court. “We could have been friends” is lame and embarrassing. So stupid and lame.

  • Mac@mander.xyz
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    22 hours ago

    Do i need to submit paperwork somewhere giving formal non-consent to this kind of thing?

  • rtxn@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    Clickbait title. It wasn’t testimony, it was part of a victim impact statement. The defendant had already been found guilty.

    Still weird, but not as procedurally questionable as it sounds. Victim impact statements are meant to literally sway the judge toward a harsher sentence, and basically everything’s fair play.

    • turtle [he/him]@lemm.ee
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      1 day ago

      This still has no place in a court of law if it was supposed to influence anything about the case.

  • TheReturnOfPEB@reddthat.com
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    1 day ago

    Yeah … that is not OK.

    “And I would like to amend my will to add the prosecutor’s kid as the beneficiary. And thank you, Judge, and might I add that you make that gavel look very powerful!”

    • SkyezOpen@lemmy.world
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      7 hours ago

      According to an article (dunno if it’s this one, didn’t click lol) the victim’s sister wrote it and they just used Ai for his voice and likeness.

  • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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    1 day ago

    We have this interesting combination of high tech and low tech literacy, before you know it praying to the machine spirits will be a mainstream religion.

        • Jax@sh.itjust.works
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          1 day ago

          There’s a marked difference, though, the Moon can’t actually generate words that you can digest. Some people might think the Moon is speaking to them, but their brains are just spicy - it is not the same as a machine.

          • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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            26 minutes ago

            The machine isn’t really speaking to them either, it’s just generating responses through a pattern recognition engine. There’s no “there” there.

            Might as well pray to a parrot.

  • LuxSpark@lemmy.cafe
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    1 day ago

    If these are not the victim’s actual words, then WTF? This is completely contrived.

  • Grimy@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    Using it at a trial like this is completely unhinged. That being said, it might help victims of violent crimes give their testimony (I’m mainly thinking of SA). I could see this having a use in prisoner rehabilitation as well, with the explicit consent of the victom or family of course.

    • rtxn@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      It wasn’t testimony, it was part of a victim impact statement. Vibes should never be used as testimony or evidence because LLMs are infamously biased and can’t be sequestered.

      • Grimy@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        Yes, in this case it is completely unacceptable.

        Im saying after that that I would find it acceptable for victims to use an avatar to convey what they want to say, if speaking in court is too difficult because of the trauma. It shouldnt be an llm though, the victim should write the script.

        • bstix
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          13 hours ago

          It was written by the sister. It’s what she thought he would have said, and it was her victim statement.

          The AI made it into a video.

          • Grimy@lemmy.world
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            10 hours ago

            Using it at a trial like this is completely unhinged. That being said, it might help victims…

            Yes, in this case it is completely unacceptable. Im saying after that that I would find it acceptable for victims…

            I am talking about two different scenarios. My second comment is solely to clarify this point.