Should AI give you a voice? Even when you've been murdered?An AI avatar of a murder victim addressed his killer in court last week, and it may have been the first admittance of an AI-generated victim impact statement in a US court. Chris Pelkey, who was shot in a road rage incident in 2021, was recreated in a video made by his sister to offer forgiveness to his killer. This could mark the start of a new relationship between AI and the law, but will it change the relationship between us and the law? And what are the broader impacts we might see on our culture? Brittany sits down with NPR digital news reporter Juliana Kim and Brandon Blankenship, assistant professor and director of the pre-law program at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, to find out.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
Chapter 1: What happened in the court case involving AI?
So back in 2021, a man named Christopher Pelkey was shot and killed in a road rage incident. His case initially went to court in 2023, but it had to be retried because of some procedural issues. And it's why it took until this month for the man who shot him to face sentencing.
And during this whole time, Christopher's sister, Stacey Wales, had been mulling over what she would say in her victim impact statement, which is a chance for loved ones to talk about their grief before the judge hands down a sentence.
What would you say if you only had one last chance to speak up for your brother, to sum up a life?
She told me that while she was at a loss for words, it was clear what her brother would say. So she asked her husband and their business partner, both of whom have experience using AI, to help. Her plea was this.
This whole trial is about him, because of him, and for him. And he doesn't get a say? He doesn't get a chance to speak? We have to give him a voice.
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Chapter 2: How did Stacey Wales use AI to speak for her brother?
They only had a few days and had to source a bunch of different AI tools. But in the end, they actually pulled it off. And the message that Stacey really wanted the judge and her brother's killer to hear, it was all about forgiveness.
To Gabriel Horcasidas, the man who shot me, it is a shame we encountered each other that day in those circumstances. In another life, we probably could have been friends. I believe in forgiveness and in God who forgives. I always have. And I still do. Thank you to everyone for being here. It means more than you know. Well, I'm going to go fishing now. Love you all. See you on the other side.
Now, what's so interesting to me about this story is that it feels like the start of a new relationship between AI and the law.
Chapter 3: What message did Chris Pelkey's AI avatar convey?
Neither the defense nor the judge pushed back, surprisingly. And later in the hearing, Judge Todd Lang said he actually loved the use of AI. He said he usually sticks to last names in court, but after hearing from the family and seeing the video, he felt compelled to call Chris by his first name.
And what really stood out to the judge was that, you know, the family themselves were asking for the maximum sentence, but the AI rendering of Chris didn't talk about punishment. And in the end, the judge actually gave the maximum sentence...
I want to know, how will it change our relationship to the law? And what are the broader impacts we might see on our culture?
The story makes me reflect a lot on mortality and AI's role in possibly changing kind of what it means to grieve and remember.
I'm joined by Juliana, who you just heard. Hi there. And Professor Brandon Blankenship, an assistant professor and director of the pre-law program at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
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Chapter 4: What implications does this case have for AI and the law?
Thanks for having us.
So, Juliana, tell me the rest of the story of this AI video. Why did Stacey feel so strongly about making it?
It was clear from talking to Stacey that she was really close to her brother. You know, he lived with her at one point and even walked her down the aisle at her wedding. One of the reasons Stacey felt so strongly about humanizing Chris was because she said the main images of her brother shown during the trial was of him getting shot on the road and his autopsy photo.
Chapter 5: How does this case reshape our understanding of victim impact statements?
That's so sad. Yeah.
Yeah, she was keenly aware of the great power and responsibility that comes with AI. You know, while working on the script, she kept checking in with herself, making sure that what she wrote reflected him, his Facebook posts, his go-to phrases, and not just what she wanted him to say.
Interesting. Okay. So why is this different from other attempts to bring AI into the courtroom? Brandon, I'd love to hear from you.
Well, American courts are really structured around due process. And if the prosecution puts together a case, for example, using AI, and the defense wants to go back and duplicate what the prosecution did to test the results to ensure that due process was followed on the part of the prosecutor, there's really no way to test that. And so courts are highly suspect of it.
Yeah, I mean, talking to other legal experts, it sounds like this is the first case, at least in the U.S., of using AI to create a victim impact statement. A lot of times when it's used in the courtroom, it's kind of in this concealed manner and then they get caught.
But in this case with Stacey, right, the video opens up with an avatar essentially saying this is not the real Chris and this was made using AI.
The law, though, is ultimately about how we relate to each other as human beings, like person to person. And AI is famously not human. So what would it mean for AI to get more into the legal mix than just this one case, this one time?
I mean, you're right there at the boundary of law and ethics, but I think the evidence rules altogether, if you look at them comprehensively, they're really designed to make sure that anything that comes into court is truthful, is just, and, for example, relevant to the actual case, and that it's fair.
Mm-hmm.
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Chapter 6: What ethical concerns arise from using AI in legal settings?
I happened to be redoing my will when I was having this conversation with you guys, and I decided I'm going to add a statement in there that says this is who I want in control of my digital persona once I pass away.
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Are there other cans of worms this opens up?
just from a humanization point of view, who owns my digital persona? I think that to me is the most interesting part. You know, if you think about it, you know, I could go out on the internet and I could generate a digital persona, Brittany, that in many ways are like you, but they're not you. And so who owns that? And it's highlighted in this particular case because the sister of Mm-hmm.
I can see if I were going to be on the other side of this case representing somebody in a sentencing hearing, I would want to narrow that scope down of the storytelling. If we could just narrow the scope down to that one incident where the road rage incident happened, it tells a very different story. And is that fair?
Do you think there might be cultural impacts if posthumous AI in or out of court becomes more common?
Even just stepping out of the courtroom, right? The story makes me reflect a lot on mortality and AI's role in possibly changing kind of what it means to grieve and remember. One tidbit that stuck with me from talking to Stacey was how badly she wanted to include her brother's chuckle in the video. Apparently, it was a big hallmark of who he was.
But all the clips of Chris laughing were too noisy to work with. And the whole ordeal made her actually go into a closet and record a nine-minute video of herself talking, laughing, enunciating certain words so that her family wouldn't have the same struggle she did if it ever came down to it.
Wow.
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