PARKLAND, Florida (AP) — Joaquin “Guac” Oliver perished in the tragic Parkland high school shooting of 2018, yet lawmakers at the federal level who resist stricter gun control measures found themselves receiving phone calls in his voice on Wednesday, criticizing them for their stance.
Utilizing artificial intelligence, the families of Oliver and five other gun violence victims have reproduced messages in their loved ones’ voices, reaching out to senators and House members aligned with the National Rifle Association and against more stringent gun legislation. The initiative is coordinated through The Shotline platform, enabling visitors to designate the recipients of the calls.
This movement was initiated on Valentine’s Day to mark the sixth anniversary of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, which resulted in the tragic deaths of 17-year-old Oliver, 13 fellow students, and three staff members. Oliver was fatally shot while lying wounded on the ground, the fatal bullet piercing through his raised hand as the 19-year-old perpetrator aimed his AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle.
Manuel and Patricia Oliver, Joaquin’s parents, emphasize that the campaign is rooted in the commonly held belief that advocating for legislative change begins with contacting elected officials. Originally from Venezuela and now naturalized U.S. citizens, they advocate for the prohibition of firearms like the AR-15.
AP correspondent Haya Panjwani sheds light on the utilization of artificial intelligence by Parkland families impacted by gun violence to voice their protest.
“We come from a place where gun violence is a problem, but you will never see a 19-year-old with an AR-15 getting into a school and shooting people,” Manuel Oliver expressed. “There’s a reason for the gun violence in a Third World country. There’s no reason for the gun violence and the amount of victims in the United States.”
Following Joaquin’s tragic death, the Olivers established Change the Ref, in collaboration with March for Our Lives, a group formed by Stoneman Douglas students. Together, they engage young individuals through unconventional demonstrations like the AI-generated calls and “die-ins,” where students staged protests inside a supermarket chain that supported a pro-NRA politician.
In order to create the voice recordings, the Olivers and other families provided an AI company with audio samples of their deceased loved ones, allowing the technology to replicate their voices with adjustments in tone and cadence as per the families’ guidance.
Joaquin’s AI-generated voice introduces itself and conveys, “Many students and teachers were murdered on Valentine’s Day … by a person using an AR-15, but you don’t care. You never did. It’s been six years and you’ve done nothing.”
The voice message continues, “I died that day in Parkland. My body was destroyed by a weapon of war. I’m back today because my parents used AI to re-create my voice to call you. Other victims like me will be calling too, again and again, to demand action. How many calls will it take for you to care? How many dead voices will you hear before you finally listen?”
The NRA did not respond to inquiries via phone or email.
In 2020, the Olivers employed AI technology to produce a video featuring Joaquin urging young voters to support candidates advocating for stricter gun laws. However, critics accused them of politicizing his death to impede the rights of law-abiding gun owners.
“They put words in a dead kid’s mouth. If my father did this to me I would haunt him for the rest of his life,” one commenter expressed on YouTube.
Dismissing such criticisms, the Olivers assert that they are well-acquainted with Joaquin’s beliefs and convictions.
“I know exactly what my son thought,” Manual Oliver affirmed. “Joaquin took enough time to write his thoughts, his principles, his ideas, his way of living, his dreams, his goals. Everything is out there on social media.”
Other participants in this advocacy effort include the families of Akilah Dasilva, a 23-year-old victim of a 2018 shooting at a Waffle House in Tennessee, and Uziyah Garcia, a 10-year-old who tragically lost his life in the 2022 Uvalde, Texas, elementary school shooting. Additionally, there are the parents of Ethan Song, a 15-year-old who died in a firearm accident, and the family of a 20-year-old homicide victim as well as a man who died by suicide.
Brett Cross, the uncle who was raising Uziyah, shared that the young boy aspired to serve as a police officer. In the AI-generated message, Uziyah’s voice states, “I’m a 4th grader at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. Or at least I was when a man with an AR-15 came into my school and killed 18 of my classmates, two teachers and me.” He implores lawmakers, “What is it going to take for you to help make sure violence like this stops?”
Cross emphasized that their participation aims to prevent other children from enduring the same tragedy and spare other families from similar anguish.
Song tragically took his own life in 2018 at his friend’s residence in Connecticut while handling an unsecured handgun. Mike and Kristin Song have crafted a message in their son’s voice advocating for a federal law that criminalizes improper firearm storage in households with children.
“Despite the accumulation of our deceased children’s coffins, one would assume it sufficient to instigate a cultural transformation in this country, yet regrettably, our message seems to fall on deaf ears,” Kristin Song lamented.
Families affected by gun violence will have the opportunity to incorporate their deceased loved ones’ replicated voices into this ongoing project.
The Olivers are not alone among the Stoneman Douglas families in their public activism following the tragic incident, with divergent views prevailing on the gun control debate.
However, unlike many others who primarily engage in public speeches, social media advocacy, and lobbying efforts — which have yielded some successes — the Olivers, particularly Manuel, adopt a confrontational approach with opponents and challenge allies to exhibit boldness. They identify themselves as “the rebel faction of the gun violence prevention movement.”
Manuel Oliver’s public addresses often feature strong language, and his activism has led to notable incidents, including his arrest in 2022 for scaling a construction crane near the White House to demand President Joe Biden enact stricter gun laws. Subsequently, he was escorted out of a White House event for confronting the president.
As an artist, Manuel painted an anti-gun mural opposite the NRA’s headquarters in Virginia, with armed counter-protestors observing his actions. He tours the nation with a solo performance centered on his son and his tragic demise, punctuated by symbolically hammering holes into a life-size portrait of Joaquin, each gap representing a bullet that ended his life.
“We don’t have nothing to lose here — we already lost everything,” Manuel Oliver declared. “For me, (protesting) is normal. The only thing that is not normal is that we are allowing our society to let people die.”
