AI ‘reanimations’: Making facsimiles of the dead raises ethical quandaries

This screenshot of an AI-generated video depicts Christopher Pelkey, who was killed in 2021.
Screenshot: Stacey Wales/YouTube
Nir Eisikovits, UMass Boston and Daniel J. Feldman, UMass Boston

Christopher Pelkey was shot and killed in a road range incident in 2021. On May 8, 2025, at the sentencing hearing for his killer, an AI video reconstruction of Pelkey delivered a victim impact statement. The trial judge reported being deeply moved by this...