Project uses AI to recreate voices of people killed by gun violence

A project called The Shotline is using artificial intelligence to recreate the voices of gun violence victims to send messages to lawmakers.

Patricia Oliver lost her son Joaquin in 2018, after a 19-year-old man opened fire on students and staff in Parkland, Florida at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Seventeen people were killed.

Now, Patricia and Manuel Oliver work to end gun violence. The most recent project they were involved in included recreating their son’s voice.

“We moved forward with the project, we were looking and putting together different videos, anything that has audio,” Oliver explained.

Using old audio messages and video along with a message written by Joaquin’s parents, artificial intelligence was able to put the words in his voice.

“We knew that it would be hard, but it's never harder than losing Joaquin,” Patricia said.