Former CNN journalist Jim Acosta interviewed an AI avatar of American schoolboy Joaquin Oliver, who was one of the victims of the mass shooting at a school in Parkland, Florida.
Former CNN journalist Jim Acosta interviewed an AI avatar of American schoolboy Joaquin Oliver, who was one of the victims of the mass shooting at a school in Parkland, Florida.
«I was taken from this world too soon because of gun violence at school. It’s important to talk about these issues so we can create a safer future for everyone,» Oliver’s AI avatar said during the interview, although, as The Guardian journalists note, his manner of speaking was computerized, and his facial and mouth movements were abrupt and unnatural, and more like a dubbing than a real person’s speech.
Acosta announced the interview on social media, saying it would be «a show you don’t want to miss» and a «one-of-a-kind interview.» The former CNN correspondent now calls himself an independent journalist and publishes content on the blog Substack after parting ways with CNN in January.
At the same time, a significant number of commenters criticized the idea of such an AI interview. «There are living people who survived the school shooting that you could interview. And it would be their words and thoughts, not completely made-up things,» one angry social media user noted.
Joaquin Oliver was 17 years old when he was shot and killed in a hallway at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, N.C., by a former student who had been expelled for indiscipline.
Back in 2020, it was reported that Joaquin Oliver’s parents began using an AI image of their son for a video in which he urged people to vote for politicians who support gun control.
The victim’s father, Manuel Oliver, himself invited Acosta to be the first reporter to interview his son’s AI avatar.
Critics of such actions believe that creating digitized computer avatars of real people who have died opens the door to disinformation, deepfakes, fraud, and scams.
Recently, dev.ua told the story of a 23-year-old resident of the UK who agreed to become a model for an artificial intelligence startup, but did not realize that she would no longer have «control over her own face.»
We also wrote about how artificial intelligence allowed a murdered man to appeal to the court to sentence the murderer.
