In Courtroom First, AI Revives Voice Of Road Rage Victim

An AI-generated video allowed a road rage victim to deliver a statement at his killer’s sentencing in an Arizona courtroom.

A grieving sister used artificial intelligence to bring her murdered brother’s voice and image back to life. Stacey Wales played a video of her brother, Christopher Pelkey—killed in a 2021 road-rage incident—during the May 1 sentencing of his killer, Gabriel Horcasitas.

The AI-generated video showed Pelkey’s face and voice reconstructed from family photos and old recordings. “Just to be clear for everyone seeing this,” the video said, “I am a version of Chris Pelkey re-created through AI.”

It went on to address the man who shot him: “In another life, we probably could have been friends. I believe in forgiveness, and a God who forgives. I always have and I still do.”

The video left many in the courtroom moved. Judge Todd Lang, who handed Horcasitas the maximum sentence of 10 and a half years for manslaughter, praised the impact. “I loved that AI,” Lang said, as reported by The Washington Post. “I feel that that was genuine,” he added.

Stacey wrote the speech herself, aiming to reflect the kind of person her brother was. “What if Chris could make his own impact statement?” she said, as the Post reported. Her husband, Tim, a tech entrepreneur, used AI tools to animate Pelkey’s face and voice.

Experts were divided. While some say it’s a powerful, ethical use of technology, others worry about future misuse. “Are we always going to get fidelity to what the person would’ve wanted?” asked ethics professor Derek Leben, as reported by the BBC.

But for Stacey, it was worth it. “We approached this with ethics and morals,” she said, as reported by the BBC. “Just like a hammer, AI can build or destroy. We chose to build,” she added.

The case marks one of the first uses of AI in U.S. victim impact statements and could shape how technology is used in courtrooms ahead.