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AI delivers victim-impact statement in US

An AI-generated video of a man killed in a road-rage incident told an Arizona judge last month that he believed in forgiveness, and that in another life, he and the man who killed him “probably could have been friends”, according to a report in the ABA Journal. 

Judge Todd Lang sentenced Gabriel Paul Horcasitas for manslaughter in the road-rage death of Christopher Pelkey. The sentence was a year more than sought by prosecutors, according to local media. 

“I love that AI,” said the judge in Maricopa County, Arizona.  

“Thank you for that. I felt like that was genuine; that his obvious forgiveness of Mr Horcasitas reflects the character I heard about today.”

Real video clips 

The video, created by Pelkey’s family, was the first use of AI to create a victim’s impact statement in Arizona, and possibly the US, Arizona television station KNXV reported. 

Pelkey’s sister, Stacey Wales, created the AI video with her husband and a friend. In an interview with Fox 10 Phoenix, she said that she had opinions about whether she forgave the shooter. 

“But it was important not to make Chris say what I was feeling and to detach and let him speak, because he said things that would never come out of my mouth, but I know would come out of his,” she said. 

Wales said creating the video was not a simple process. The statement included real video clips and a photo that Pelkey took of himself with a filter to show himself in old age.