{"id":19675,"date":"2025-08-08T07:37:50","date_gmt":"2025-08-08T05:37:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/08\/when-a-journalist-uses-ai-to-interview-a-dead-child-isnt-it-time-to-ask-what-the-boundaries-should-be-gaby-hinsliff\/"},"modified":"2025-08-08T07:37:50","modified_gmt":"2025-08-08T05:37:50","slug":"when-a-journalist-uses-ai-to-interview-a-dead-child-isnt-it-time-to-ask-what-the-boundaries-should-be-gaby-hinsliff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/08\/when-a-journalist-uses-ai-to-interview-a-dead-child-isnt-it-time-to-ask-what-the-boundaries-should-be-gaby-hinsliff\/","title":{"rendered":"When a journalist uses AI to interview a dead child, isn\u2019t it time to ask what the boundaries should be? | Gaby Hinsliff"},"content":{"rendered":"

The virtual world can bring a kind of friendship and a kind of connection, even to the grieving. But it can also facilitate exploitation of very human needs<\/p>\n

Joaquin Oliver was 17 years old when he was shot in the hallway of his high school. An older teenager, expelled some months previously, had opened fire with a high-powered rifle on Valentine\u2019s Day in what became America\u2019s deadliest high school shooting<\/a>. Seven years on, Joaquin says he thinks it\u2019s important to talk about what happened on that day in Parkland, Florida, \u201cso that we can create a safer future for everyone\u201d.<\/p>\n

But sadly, what happened to Joaquin that day is that he died. The oddly metallic voice speaking to the ex-CNN journalist Jim Acosta in an interview<\/a> on Substack this week was actually that of a digital ghost: an AI, trained on the teenager\u2019s old social media posts at the request of his parents, who are using it to bolster their campaign<\/a> for tougher gun controls. Like many bereaved families, they have told their child\u2019s story over and over again to heartbreakingly little avail. No wonder they\u2019re pulling desperately at every possible lever now, wondering what it takes to get dead children heard in Washington.<\/p>\n

Gaby Hinsliff is a Guardian columnist<\/p>\n

Continue reading…<\/a>
\nThe virtual world can bring a kind of friendship and a kind of connection, even to the grieving. But it can also facilitate exploitation of very human needs
\nJoaquin Oliver was 17 years old when he was shot in the hallway of his high school. An older teenager, expelled some months previously, had opened fire with a high-powered rifle on Valentine\u2019s Day in what became America\u2019s deadliest high school shooting. Seven years on, Joaquin says he thinks it\u2019s important to talk about what happened on that day in Parkland, Florida, \u201cso that we can create a safer future for everyone\u201d.
\nBut sadly, what happened to Joaquin that day is that he died. The oddly metallic voice speaking to the ex-CNN journalist Jim Acosta in an interview on Substack this week was actually that of a digital ghost: an AI, trained on the teenager\u2019s old social media posts at the request of his parents, who are using it to bolster their campaign for tougher gun controls. Like many bereaved families, they have told their child\u2019s story over and over again to heartbreakingly little avail. No wonder they\u2019re pulling desperately at every possible lever now, wondering what it takes to get dead children heard in Washington.
\nGaby Hinsliff is a Guardian columnist Continue reading…Technology | The Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The virtual world can bring a kind of friendship and a kind of connection, even to the grieving. But it can also facilitate exploitation of very human needs Joaquin Oliver was 17 years old when he was shot in the hallway of his high school. An older teenager, expelled some months previously, had opened fire …<\/p>\n

When a journalist uses AI to interview a dead child, isn\u2019t it time to ask what the boundaries should be? | Gaby Hinsliff<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":19676,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19675"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19675"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19675\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}