After Their Children Were Shot, Parents Used AI to Recreate Voices and Appeal to Lawmakers

The parents of a teenager killed in the 2018 Parkland school shooting have initiated a powerful new project called The Shotline to advocate for stricter gun laws. This innovative initiative employs AI technology to replicate the voices of children who lost their lives to gun violence, delivering automated calls to lawmakers.

Launched six years after the tragic shooting that claimed 17 lives and injured many more, The Shotline features recordings from six children and young adults. By entering a zip code, users can connect with their local representatives, who receive calls from the recreated voices of these victims, imploring for stronger gun control measures. Joaquin Oliver, one of the Parkland shooting victims, prompts, “I’m back today because my parents used AI to recreate my voice to call you. Other victims like me will be calling too.” As of now, over 8,000 AI-generated calls have been made to lawmakers through the platform.

“This is a United States problem we have not managed to solve,” said Manuel Oliver, who co-founded The Shotline with his wife, Patricia. “If we need to use unconventional methods to address it, we embrace that.”

To generate these voices, the Olivers utilized a voice cloning service from ElevenLabs, a startup that recently raised $80 million in funding led by Andreessen Horowitz. The software can recreate voices using just a few minutes of vocal samples and works in over 24 languages. The Olivers based Joaquin's voice samples on his social media posts. Parents and legal guardians of gun violence victims can submit voice samples to contribute to The Shotline’s repository of AI-generated voices.

The project has sparked ethical debates regarding the use of AI to generate deepfakes of deceased individuals. Recently, the Federal Communications Commission ruled that robocalls using AI-generated voices are illegal. This decision followed reports of deepfake calls impersonating President Biden in New Hampshire. ElevenLabs co-founder Mati Staniszewski stated that their technology enables individuals to recreate the voices of deceased relatives, provided they have the necessary rights and permissions. However, it remains uncertain whether parents of minors possess the rights to their children's likenesses.