{"id":59737,"date":"2025-08-05T08:26:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-05T08:26:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/59737\/"},"modified":"2025-08-05T08:26:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T08:26:11","slug":"parkland-shooting-victim-recreated-as-ai-for-jim-acosta-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/59737\/","title":{"rendered":"Parkland Shooting Victim Recreated as AI for Jim Acosta Interview"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe parents of Joaquin Oliver, one of the students killed in the 2018 Parkland high school shooting<\/a>, have created an AI version of their late son, who partook in an interview with journalist Jim Acosta on Monday, Aug. 4.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe interview took place on what would have been Oliver\u2019s 25th birthday. The conversation, which aired on Acosta\u2019s Substack<\/a>, found the journalist essentially talking with an animated photo of Oliver with moving lips and other small gestures. Oliver\u2019s father, Manuel<\/a>, said in an interview with Acosta that the AI model was trained on general information, as well as knowledge \u201cbased on things that [his son] wrote, he said, he posted.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThis is a very legit Joaquin,\u201d Manuel said.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe beginning of the interview found Acosta asking the AI Oliver questions about gun violence and how to curb it. \u201cI believe in a mix of stronger gun control<\/a> laws, mental health support, and community engagement,\u201d the AI Oliver said. \u201cWe need to create safe spaces for conversations and connections, making everyone feels seen and heard. It\u2019s about building a culture of kindness and understanding.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe rest of the conversation was more casual, with Acosta speaking with the AI Oliver about basketball and movies like Star Wars and Remember the Titans. Afterward, Acosta spoke with Manuel about his decision to use AI to re-animate his son, and his plans for the project going forward.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI understand that this is AI,\u201d Manuel said. \u201cI don\u2019t want anyone to think that I am in, some way, trying to bring my son back. Sadly, I can\u2019t, right? I wish I could. However, the technology is out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tManuel said one reason he and his wife, Patricia, created the AI of their son was to hear his voice again. \u201cPatricia will spend hours asking questions,\u201d Manuel said. \u201cLike any other mother, she loves to hear Joaquin saying, \u2018I love you, mommy.\u2019 And that\u2019s important.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe other reason, Manuel said, was to add Oliver\u2019s voice to conversations about gun safety. \u201cWe can just raise the voices,\u201d Manuel said. \u201cNow, Joaquin is going to start having followers\u2026 He\u2019s going to start uploading videos. This is just the beginning.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n

\n\tThe full AI version of Oliver debuted one year after artificial intelligence<\/a> was used to recreate the voices of six victims of gun violence \u2014 including Oliver\u2019s \u2014 for a gun control campaign called The Shotline<\/a>. These AI-generated messages were posted online and also used for direct calls to lawmakers in Washington D.C.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tSince his son\u2019s death, Manuel has been an outspoken gun control advocate. In 2022, he interrupted a speech by then-president Joe Biden<\/a> on the passage of a modest gun control law, which Manuel criticized for not going far enough to address the problem. The following year, he and Patricia were ejected from a Congressional hearing<\/a> on the second amendment after exchanging words with lawmakers. Manuel also created and starred in a one-man show about his son that he performed around the country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The parents of Joaquin Oliver, one of the students killed in the 2018 Parkland high school shooting, have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59738,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[182,181,507,44734,44735,44736,74],"class_list":{"0":"post-59737","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-gun-control","12":"tag-parkland","13":"tag-parkland-shooting","14":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59737\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}