Parkland Parents Make Video Of Their Dead Son Using Artificial Intelligence

The parents of 17-year-old Joaquin Oliver, who was murdered during the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, on February 14, 2018, brought their son back to life using artificial intelligence. 

Following the death of their son, Manuel and Patricia Oliver founded the organization Change The Ref to help get young people politically engaged in a variety of issues, most notably, gun violence. As part of a campaign to urge young people to vote in the upcoming election, the Olivers worked with a team of artists to digitally recreate Joaquin.

This would have been the first year that Joaquin could have voted in a presidential election.

His parents played a hands-on role in putting together the video, focusing on the tiniest details to make it as life-like as possible. They chose his wardrobe, fine-tuned his mannerisms, and used his Twitter account to help write the dialogue.

"It's something where you just put the dots together if you see his posts, the way he thinks, he was still thinking, the way he was expressing his frustration about situations," his mom said.

The results were stunning. While the digital recreation is not perfect, it is very difficult to tell that Joaquin is not alive and speaking to the camera.

"I couldn't even breathe well," she said when she first saw the video. "Of course we know that is not Joaquin, but they did such an amazing job with the technology that you can't say, 'Oh my God, how I wish that could be the real Joaquin there talking to everybody.'"

Photo: Getty Images