Chris Pelkey was killed in a road rage shooting in Chandler, Arizona, in 2021. Three and a half years later, Pelkey appeared in an Arizona court to address his killer—or at least, in a way. “To Gabriel Horcasitas, the man who shot me, it is a shame we encountered each other that day in those circumstances, ” said a video recording of Pelkey. “In another life, we probably could have been friends. ” “I believe in forgiveness, and a God who forgives. I always have, and I still do, ” Pelkey continued, wearing a grey baseball cap and sporting the same thick red and brown beard he had in life. Pelkey was 37 years old, deeply religious, and an army combat veteran. Horcasitas shot Pelkey at a red light in 2021 after Pelkey exited his vehicle and walked back toward Horcasitas’s car. This appearance from beyond the grave was made possible through artificial intelligence, representing what might be the first use of AI to deliver a victim impact statement.

Stacey Wales, Pelkey’s sister, told local outlet ABC-15 that while gathering over 40 impact statements from Chris’s family and friends, she had a recurring question. “All I kept coming back to was, what would Chris say?” Wales explained. As AI becomes increasingly integrated into society and courtrooms, the US Judicial Conference advisory committee announced it will begin soliciting public input to help determine how to regulate the use of AI-generated evidence at trials. Wales and her husband supplied an AI model with videos and audio of Pelkey to create a rendition that would capture the sentiments and thoughts of Pelkey as if he were still alive, something Wales described as a “Frankenstein of love” to local outlet Fox 10. Judge Todd Lang responded positively to the AI usage. Lang ultimately sentenced Horcasitas to ten and a half years in prison on manslaughter charges. “I loved that AI, thank you for that. As angry as you are, as justifiably angry as the family is, I heard the forgiveness, ” Lang said. “I feel that that was genuine. ” Pelkey’s brother John also expressed support, saying he felt “waves of healing” upon seeing his brother’s face and believed Chris would have forgiven his killer. “That was the man I knew, ” John said.