Organizers with the anti-gun violence advocacy group Change the Ref rallied in Boston Thursday, drawing attention to the issue with a new, AI-assisted “Shotline” campaign that recreates voices of deceased gun violence victims and incorporates them into automated calls to lawmakers.
Manuel and Patricia Oliver launched the nonprofit after their son Joaquin Oliver and 16 others were killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida in 2018. This year, as the couple travels the nation in a school bus, they play an AI-generated recording of Joaquin’s voice that, when sent to local lawmakers, warns of voters looking for action on gun law reform.
“I died that day in Parkland, my body was destroyed by a weapon of war,” the haunting AI voice said to several dozen attendees at a City Hall press conference. “How many calls will it take for you to care? How many dead voices will you hear before you finally listen?”
Joaquin’s voice is one of six that those wishing to get involved can currently send to local and Congressional lawmakers as a declaration that gun violence is a top issue they’ll consider at the polls.
Patricia Oliver, who is originally from Venezuela, said it’s Change the Ref’s second time using AI in an advocacy campaign. She says, even though using her son’s AI-generated voice is personally heart wrenching each time it plays, she believes it will be impactful for others who hear it.
“The fact that other people can use it as a message and leaving those messages to their representative, could you imagine ... that those faces of the representative listening to a voice that is coming from a dead person? That will be something that I think is making a difference,” she said.
In 2020, the couple created a deepfake video of Joaquin to implore action.
Oliver said she and her husband Manuel are hoping to reach 500,000 calls to lawmakers before the end of their 2024 campaign. She said so far, they’ve sent about 2,000 calls.
Chaplain Clementina Chéry, founder of the local advocacy group the Louis D. Brown Peace Institute, pledged to find 24 local victims’ voices to add to the Olivers’ advocacy in honor of what would have been Joaquin Oliver’s 24th birthday this year.
“We have accepted your call to action,” Chery declared, “And we will work with you to get the wish for a happy birthday, for 24 of our loved ones’ voices.”
“Memorials offer us a sense of connection and understanding that transcends our individual losses. Memorials keep the stories of our loved ones alive,” Chery added.
The Olivers’ visit coincided with the opening of a local, three-part exhibit, the Gun Violence Memorial Project, that showcases gun violence victims’ belongings in glass houses staged at Boston City Hall, the ICA and the Mass Design Group Gallery in the city’s South End.
Mass Design Group principal Jha D. Amazi said the exhibit, spaced across three locations, invites onlookers to think past statistics reported in the news.
“It gives us somewhere physical to be, somewhere to reflect on the impact of this [gun violence] epidemic as opposed to being somewhat of a passive witness to it,” Amazi said. “The numbers are important because we need to be able to understand the toll, but physically being present with these [victims] being honored by their loved ones completely changes the dynamic of our proximity to the issue.”
