The Dumbest Thing I Read Today

What to say?

According to the Daily Mail, an Army Veteran “came back from the dead” to testify in court, begging for forgiveness of the man who killed him. 

And the court allowed the AI “cheap fake” to testify. 

AI-generated Army vet ‘comes back from the dead’ to forgive his killer. pic.twitter.com/8XzysVWY9J

— Daily Mail Online (@MailOnline) May 8, 2025

Has the world gone insane? The Magic 8-Ball says all signs point to “Yes.”

A US Army veteran who was killed in a road rage incident nearly four years ago was able to forgive the man who fatally shot him – thanks to artificial intelligence.

Christopher Pelkey, 37, was shot dead by Gabriel Paul Horcasitas while on his way home from a church softball game in Chandler, Arizona on November 13, 2021, according to an online fundraiser.

Horcasitas has since been found guilty of Pelkey’s manslaughter. But before he was sentenced, the court heard from an AI-generated version of Pelkey himself.

The heartbreaking AI video was created by Pelkey’s sister Stacey Wales, who felt that the shooter needed to hear what the Army veteran would have told him.

‘To Gabriel Horcasitas, the man who shot me: It’s a shame we encountered each other that day in those circumstances,’ the AI said, according to Fox 10.  

‘In another life, we probably could have been friends,’ it continued, noting: ‘I believe in forgiveness and in [a] God who forgives. I always have and I still do.’

The four-and-a-half minute long video went on to include real video clips taken while Pelkey was still alive and showed a real photo he once took with an ‘old age’ filter, ABC 15 reports. 

The convicted killer SHOT Pelkey, so I doubt they could have been friends in another life. Not to mention that Horcasitas will never be able to find out because he SHOT Pelkey, making the question moot. 

NEW: Deceased man who was k*lled in a road rage incident, makes an impact statement in the courtroom with help from AI.

Bizarre.

Christopher Pelkey, then 37, lost his life after being shot during a 2021 road rage incident in Chandler, Arizona.

Stacey Wales, the sister of… pic.twitter.com/kD35W1YabM

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) May 9, 2025

NEW: Deceased man who was k*lled in a road rage incident, makes an impact statement in the courtroom with help from AI. 

 Bizarre. 

 Christopher Pelkey, then 37, lost his life after being shot during a 2021 road rage incident in Chandler, Arizona.

Stacey Wales, the sister of Pelkey, created an AI-generated video of her brother who “expressed forgiveness,” something “she wasn’t ready to do herself.” (CNN

“The only thing that kept entering my head that I kept hearing was Chris and what he would say,” Wales said to CNN.

“I had to very carefully detach myself in order to write this on behalf of Chris because what he was saying is not necessarily what I believe, but I know it’s what he would think.”

Gabriel Paul Horcasitas was sentenced to over 10 years for mansl*ughter.

“I love that AI. Thank you for that. As angry as you are and justifiably angry as the family is, I heard the forgiveness,” Judge Todd Lang said.

It is certainly POSSIBLE that Pelkey might have forgiven his killer, but no AI-generated fake Pelkey can provide evidence that he would do so. And given that Pelkey’s chosen profession suggests that he was perfectly fine with using deadly force to protect innocent people, chances are pretty good that if he had been able to defend himself with a gun, he most certainly would have. 

Pelkey’s sister had every right to testify in favor of leniency for the perpetrator–victim impact statements exist to allow the people affected by a crime to speak their minds–but it is obscene to allow her to manipulate her brother’s death in such a fashion. It is, in my mind, at least, just as obscene for the judge to allow it. 

Doing this is, in effect, hijacking the image of another to achieve what amounts to the propagation of one’s own moral or political views without giving them even the respect one should always give to their humanity. 

They literally turned the victim into a robot. Disgusting.