UVALDE, Texas — Since the day his son was killed in the Robb Elementary School massacre, Brett Cross has been the voice for Uziyah Garcia.
Nearly two years later, Uzi is speaking for himself through artificial intelligence.
“Hi, this is Uzi Garcia,” said the voice generated message. “I love video games, telling jokes, making my friends laugh and jumping on the trampoline with my family. I’m a fourth grader at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. Or, at least, I was when a man with an AR 15 came into my school and killed 18 of my classmates, two teachers and me.”
Cross told KENS 5 he sent videos of Uzi to Change the Ref a few months ago. The gun violence prevention organization was founded by the parents of Parkland High School shooting victim Joaquin Oliver.
“I immediately said, ‘Yes,’ because we are having to get more and more creative,” said Cross. “It was a back-and-forth process. The company that did the AI would send it back to me and I would listen to it and say, ‘Let’s pitch it down over here, let’s add some inflection over there.’ By the end, it was perfect.”
Cross believes the message is exactly what Uzi would have said.
“He wanted to help people,” said Cross. “This will end up helping people. To be able to bring back his voice to do what he wanted to do in life anyways is heartbreaking.”
When he first heard Uzi’s AI-generated voice, Cross says he "wept."
“I kept listening to it over and over,” he said. “His voice shouldn’t be generated through AI. His voice should be here. He should be here.”
So far, the voices of six gun violence victims have been generated. Change the Ref teamed up with March for Our Lives to create The Shotline. The website allows people to forward the voice messages to their local lawmakers. According to the website, nearly 37,000 messages have been sent.
“That was almost two years ago, nothing has changed,” Uzi's AI message continued. “Even more shootings have happened. That’s why my family recreated my voice using AI to call you today and demand change. You’ll be getting more calls from others like me too. I used to love helping people. What is it going to take for you to help make sure violence like this stops happening?”