How the sister of Christopher Pelkey made an avatar of him to testify in court.
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.
"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!"
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.