Judge wrongly permitted AI-generated victim video, state appeals court says
The Arizona Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday that a lower court judge improperly allowed at a sentencing hearing an artificial intelligence-generated video in which the victim is depicted talking about forgiveness and addressing the defendant directly. (Photo by imaginima/Getty Images)
The Arizona Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday that a lower court judge improperly allowed at a sentencing hearing an artificial intelligence-generated video in which the victim is depicted talking about forgiveness and addressing the defendant directly.
The three-judge panel upheld the manslaughter conviction for Gabriel Horcasitas but ordered a new sentencing hearing. Horcasitas had received a 10.5-year prison term last year for the shooting death of Christopher Pelkey in November 2021, according to a story by Reuters.
The video had been created by the Pelkey’s family. It depicts an AI-generated avatar of Pelkey, an Army veteran who was 37 years old when he was killed.
The opinion by the three-judge panel said the trial judge’s “consideration of the AI video so prejudiced Horcasitas as to render the sentencing procedure fundamentally unfair.”
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