Family creates AI video to depict Arizona man addressing his killer in court
By
Liliana Salgado
and
Andrew Goudsward
, Reuters
Law professor at the University of Colorado Harry Surden says the use of generative AI material in court raises ethical concerns.
Photo:
ikiryo/123RF
A simulation of a dead man created by
artificial intelligence
addressed his killer in an Arizona court this month, in what appears to be one of the first such instances in a US courtroom.
Made by his family, an AI-generated avatar of Christopher Pelkey spoke in Maricopa County Superior Court on 1 May, as a judge prepared to sentence Gabriel Paul Horcasitas for shooting and killing Pelkey in a 2021 road-rage incident.
"It is a shame we encountered each other that day in those circumstances," the Pelkey avatar said in the video. "In another life, we probably could have been friends."
The Pelkey avatar appears in the video sporting a long beard and green sweatshirt against a white backdrop.
He cautions at the start that he was an AI-version of Pelkey, which was apparent through the gaps in audio and slightly mismatched movement of his mouth.
Pelkey, a US Army veteran, was 37 at the time of the shooting.
The video marked a novel use of AI in the legal system, which has viewed the rapidly growing technology with a mix of fascination and trepidation.
Courts generally have strict rules on the types of information that can be presented in legal proceedings, and several lawyers have been sanctioned after AI systems created fake cases that they cited in legal briefs.
Pelkey's relatives were given more leeway to present the AI-generated video to the judge at sentencing, given that it was not evidence in the case.
Horcasitas, who was sentenced to 10.5 years in state prison, had already been convicted on manslaughter and endangerment charges.
Pelkey's sister Stacey Wales said she scripted the AI-generated message after struggling to convey years of grief and pain in her own statement.
She said she was not ready to forgive Horcasitas, but felt her brother would have a more understanding outlook.
"The goal was to humanise Chris, to reach the judge, and let him know his impact on this world and that he existed," she told Reuters.
Generative AI, Wales said, was "just another avenue that you can use to reach somebody".
Wales said she worked with her husband and a family friend, who all work in the tech industry, to create it.
Law professor at the University of Colorado Harry Surden said the use of generative AI material in court raises
ethical concerns
, as others may seek to use those tools to play on the emotions of judges and juries.
The content was a simulation of reality, not the verified evidence that courts typically assessed, Surden said.
"What we're seeing is the simulations have gotten so good that it completely bypasses our natural scepticism and goes straight to our emotion," he said.
- Reuters
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
RNZ News
5 hours ago
- RNZ News
Concern state house tenants evicted then blacklisted
housing security 16 minutes ago Social workers are worried state house tenants who have been evicted are then blacklisted - and end up on the street. Amy Williams filed this report.
RNZ News
8 hours ago
- RNZ News
Troops sent by Trump reach protest-hit Los Angeles, against governor's wishes
By Bastien Inafpzaurralde and Gilles Clarenne , AFP A protester waves the Palestinian flag (R) as law enforcement clashes with demonstrators during a protest following federal immigration operations, in the Compton neighborhood of Los Angeles, California on June 7, 2025. US President Donald Trump deployed 2,000 troops on June 7, 2025 to handle escalating protests against immigration enforcement raids in the Los Angeles area, a move the state's governor termed "purposefully inflammatory." Federal agents clashed with angry crowds in a Los Angeles suburb as protests stretched into a second night Saturday, shooting flash-bang grenades and shutting part of a freeway amid raids on undocumented migrants, reports said. Photo: RINGO CHIU / AFP National Guard troops began arriving in Los Angeles early on Sunday (local time) after being ordered there by US President Donald Trump, a rare deployment against the state governor's wishes after sometimes violent protests against immigration enforcement raids. Trump took federal control of California's state military to push soldiers into the country's second-biggest city, an extraordinary move not seen for decades and deemed "purposefully inflammatory" by California Governor Gavin Newsom. Helmeted troops carrying automatic weapons and with camouflaged vehicles could be seen in the Compton neighbourhood of the California city early Sunday, ahead of more protests, including a call by organisers for a "mass mobilisation" at City Hall at 2pm local time (9am Monday NZT). The development came after two days of confrontations during which federal agents fired flash-bang grenades and tear gas toward crowds angry at the arrests of dozens of migrants in a city with a large Latino population. Republicans lined up behind Trump on Sunday to dismiss warnings by Newsom and other local officials that the protests had been largely peaceful, and that the deployment was against their wishes and would exacerbate tensions. "I have no concern about that at all," Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson told ABC's This Week when asked, adding that Newsom "has shown an inability or unwillingness to do what is necessary there, so the president stepped in". As for threats by Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth on Saturday to send in active-duty Marines on top of the Guard troops, Johnson said he did not see that as "heavy-handed". "We have to be prepared to do what is necessary," he argued. Federal authorities "want a spectacle. Don't give them one. Never use violence. Speak out peacefully," Newsom had posted on X late on Saturday. He branded Hegseth's threat "deranged". Members of the National Guard stand guard outside the Metropolitan Detention Center, MDC in downtown Los Angeles, California. Photo: FREDERIC J. BROWN / AFP "We agree that if you're being violent, you should be arrested ... But this is not what's happening," California Congresswoman Nanette Barragan told CNN Sunday. "We are having an administration that's targeting peaceful protests ... The president is sending the National Guard because he doesn't like the scenes," the Democrat said. Overnight, an AFP photographer saw fires and fireworks light up the streets during clashes, while a protester holding a Mexican flag stood in front of a burnt-out car that had been sprayed with a slogan against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency. "It's up to us to stand up for our people," said a Los Angeles resident whose parents are immigrants, declining to give her name as emergency services lights flashed in the distance. Trump had signed a memorandum sending 2000 National Guard troops to Los Angeles, the White House said on Saturday. The National Guard - a reserve military - is frequently used in natural disasters, and occasionally in instances of civil unrest, but almost always with the consent of local authorities. It is the first time since 1965 that a president has deployed a National Guard without a request by a state governor, the former head of Human Rights Watch, US activist Kenneth Roth, posted on X, accusing Trump of "creating a spectacle so he can continue his immigration raids". Members of the National Guard stand guard outside the Metropolitan Detention Center, MDC in downtown Los Angeles, California. Photo: FREDERIC J. BROWN / AFP But the National Guard are "specifically trained for this type of crowd situation", Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told CBS' Face the Nation on Sunday, refusing to divulge where in Los Angeles they would be deployed. Trump has delivered on a promise to crack down hard on the entry and presence of undocumented migrants - who he has likened to "monsters" and "animals" - since taking office in January. ICE raids in other US cities have triggered small-scale protests in recent months, but the Los Angeles unrest is the biggest and most sustained against the Trump administration's policies so far. A CBS News poll taken before the Los Angeles protests showed a slight majority of Americans still approved of the immigration crackdown. Masked and armed immigration agents carried out high-profile workplace raids in separate parts of Los Angeles on Friday and Saturday, attracting angry crowds and setting off hours-long standoffs. Fernando Delgado, a 24-year-old resident, said the raids were "injustices" and those detained were "human beings just like any". The stand-off demonstrated "Trump's authoritarianism in real time", Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders posted on X on Sunday. Trump's authoritarianism in real time: ▪️Conduct massive illegal raids. ▪️Provoke a counter-response. ▪️Declare a state of emergency. ▪️Call in the troops. Unacceptable. "Conduct massive illegal raids. Provoke a counter-response. Declare a state of emergency. Call in the troops," he wrote, adding: "Unacceptable." - AFP
RNZ News
15 hours ago
- RNZ News
Do you really remember what you think you do?
Photo: 123RF How much can we trust our own memories? In 1990, Eileen Franklin-Lipsker suddenly knew who had killed her childhood best friend, 8-year-old Susan Nason, more than 20 years ago. She had been there, she said. A repressed memory, long buried, had revealed itself. She vividly recalled the details of the 1969 murder. The van. The remote spot. Her own abusive father lifting the rock. The crushed ring on her friend's hand. A jury believed her, and George Franklin was sentenced to life in prison. Five years later, the conviction was overturned. His daughter's testimony collapsed under scrutiny. Details, such as time of day and who was there, would change. She later accused her father of another murder, but DNA proved he couldn't have done it. Gabrielle Principe is a Professor of Psychology at the College of Charleston and the author of several books specialising on memory formation. She told Sunday Morning's Jim Mora the Franklin case is a cautionary tale, a lesson that our memories can feel true, and be totally wrong. "Eileen was recalling something that she had allegedly seen 20 years ago. "However, the memory was only a year old. "So the question is, you know, how could you have a one-year-old memory of something that happened twenty years ago?" Memory is not a video camera, she said, faithfully recording and storing events for later playback. Instead, it is malleable, fragmentary, and heavily influenced by attention, emotion, and suggestion. "Our memories are subject to distortions, modifications, additions, and deletions. "You can create richly detailed, vivid, compelling false memories that people truly, truly believe. "What may have happened to Eileen... Maybe a memory of something that didn't happen that was suggested to her, that she imagined over the course of, you know, years. And it became to feel familiar and it became to feel real." "You can be 100 percent confident in a memory... and 100 percent wrong." And while the idea that traumatic events can be completely locked away and then resurface decades later as pristine recollections remains a popular belief, Principe said it's not supported by the research. "We have no scientific evidence that memories can be locked away completely and then recovered intact," she said. And the legal system, she warns, must be extremely cautious. Like DNA or blood samples, memory can be contaminated through conversations with police, therapists, and even family members. Taken to its extreme, this can create entirely false memories. "The way that that procedure works... is to start with a kernel of something, that's familiar and to suggest things.... and get individuals to think about it and imagine it, and talk about it, and to do that repeatedly. "If you do that sort of thing to people... roughly a third of people will develop richly detailed false memories that range from a crime, engaging in a crime... even to things like witnessing a demonic possession." In 1993, Christchurch childcare worker Peter Ellis was convicted of abusing children in his care. The case was largely built on the testimony of children whose accounts had been shaped by repeated, highly suggestive interviews. Over time, their stories became more elaborate and fantastical, including claims of Satanic ritual abuse. Ellis spent seven years in prison and died in 2019, still fighting to clear his name. In 2022, the Supreme Court quashed his conviction. But while clinicians and courtrooms must remain sceptical, Principe argues, the fact that memory shifts over time is not a flaw but an evolutionary advantage. "We wouldn't have the room in our brain to store memories of every single thing we experience. We have a great mechanism that we sort of rebuild things, and it usually works just fine, most of the time. "It's just that the legal situation or the legal arena demands the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Sometimes, we even rewrite memories to make ourselves feel better - to soften heartbreak, to boost confidence, to forget pain. Understanding the dynamic, reconstructive nature of memory can not only prevent miscarriages of justice but also improve our relationships. "If you're in a relationship with someone and you're disagreeing over who said what or who said they would do what. "You can all be right because your memories are based on what you paid attention to, and your memories change. "So, fighting over the details of who said what or what wasn't said, it doesn't make sense if you know about and understand how fluid, constructive attention and memory can be." By understanding our memory, she said, we can stop pretending that it's perfect. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
