He was killed in a road rage shooting. AI allowed him to deliver his own victim impact statement

CHANDLER Ariz AP There were dozens of statements submitted to the court by family and friends of Christopher Pelkey when it came time to sentence the man convicted of shooting him during a road rage circumstance They provided glimpses of Pelkey s humor his character and his military amenity But there was nothing quite like hearing from the victim himself in this situation an AI-generated version In what s thought to be a first in U S courts Pelkey s family used artificial intelligence to create a video using his likeness to give him a voice The AI rendering of Pelkey stated the shooter during the sentencing hearing last week that it was a shame they had to meet that day in under those circumstances and that the two of them ostensibly could have been friends in another life I believe in forgiveness and in God who forgives I reliably have and I still do Pelkey s avatar advised Gabriel Paul Horcasitas The AI version of Pelkey went on to share advice for people to make the the greater part of each day and to love each other not knowing how much time one might have left While use of artificial intelligence within the court system is expanding it s typically been reserved for administrative tasks legal research development preparation In Arizona it s helped inform the community of rulings in key cases Using AI to generate victim impact statements marks a new and legal at least in Arizona tool for sharing information with the court outside the evidentiary phases Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Todd Lang who presided over the road rage event disclosed after watching the video that he imagined Pelkey who was at the time of his killing would have felt that way after learning about him Lang also noted the video commented something about Pelkey s family who had expressed their anger over his death and had questioned for Horcasitas to receive the maximum sentence Horcasitas was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to imprisonment Even though that s what you longed you allowed Chris to speak from his heart as you saw it Lang reported The Associated Press left phone and emailed messages Wednesday seeking comment from Horcasitas lawyer Pelkey s sister Stacey Wales raised the idea of her brother speaking for himself For years while the event worked its way through the legal system Wales announced she thought about what she would say at the sentencing hearing She struggled to get words down on paper But when she thought about what her brother would say to the shooter knowing he would have forgiven him the words poured out of her In Arizona casualties can give their impact statements in any digital format reported casualties rights attorney Jessica Gattuso who represented the family Arizona Supreme Court Justice Ann Timmer didn t address the road rage scenario specifically in an interview Wednesday But she disclosed the rise in popularity and accessibility to AI in fresh years led to the formation of a committee to research best practices in the courts Gary Marchant a member of the committee and a law professor at Arizona State University reported he understands why Pelkey s family did it But he warned the use of this device could open the door to more people trying to introduce AI-generated evidence into courtrooms There s a real concern among the judiciary and among lawyers that deepfake evidence will be increasingly used he announced It s easy to create it and anyone can do it on a phone and it could be incredibly influential because judges and juries just like all of us are used to believing what you see Marchant pointed to a modern development in New York where a man without a lawyer used an AI-generated avatar to argue his episode in a lawsuit via video It took only seconds for the judges on the appeals court to realize that the man addressing them from the video screen didn t exist at all In the Arizona incident Wales stated the AI-generated video worked because the judge had nearly letters from family and friends that echoed the video s message There was a solid gold thread through all of those stories that was the heart of Chris Wales reported This works because it talks about the kind of person Chris was Yamat informed from Las Vegas Associated Press reporter Susan Montoya Bryan in Albuquerque New Mexico contributed to this record Source