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 U.S. courtroom, report Liliana Salgado and Andrew Goudsward. Read more.
Made by his family, an AI-generated avatar of Christopher Pelkey spoke in Maricopa County Superior Court on May 1, 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 says in the video. "In another life, we probably could have been friends."
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.
