Deepfakes of Mass Shooting Victims ‘Call’ Lawmakers

Six years ago on Valentine’s Day, a 19-year-old opened fire in a high school in Parkland, Florida, killing 17 people and injuring another 17.

Joaquin Oliver, 17, was one of those killed. On the sixth anniversary of his death, his parents Patricia and Manny Oliver released a deepfake audio of their son that calls lawmakers to lobby them on gun control.

“Hello, I’m Joaquin. I was murdered at school by a shooter with an AR 15 assault rifle. My voice has been recreated using powerful AI technology, along with the voices of others who have lost their lives to gun violence,” the call said.

“We will call members of Congress confronting their inaction with the harrowing stories of how we were killed. We'll call again and again and again until change is made.”

The call-to-action is on Shotline.org, which was created by Change the Ref, a nonprofit gun safety and gun control organization started by the Olivers.

“Artificial intelligence is becoming a good friend of ours,” Manny Oliver told The Wall Street Journal.

Mass shootings must stop: “This is a United States problem and we have not been able to fix it,” Oliver said.

Last year, there were 656 mass shootings in the U.S., according to the Gun Violence Archive. That is more than double the 272 shootings in 2014. From 2014 to 2023, there have been nearly 4,700 mass shootings.

Other victims cry out

The Olivers have been campaigning for years to make a difference. In their most recent effort, they uploaded their son’s voice audio using ElevenLabs’ AI voice creator and typed in what they wanted their son to say.

They also got help from the deepfake voices of other victims.

“Hi, this is Uzi Garcia. I’m a fourth grader at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. Or at least I was,” the deepfake youth said in a recording.

Last May, a teenager opened fire at the school in Uvalde and killed 19 children and two teachers, as well as injuring 17 people. Families of the victims called for the Texas and U.S. federal governments to enact tougher gun control laws. Within weeks, the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act was passed, which was considered the most significant gun measure in 30 years.