Subscribe to the Evening Standard on YouTube: Wearing his signature hoodie and beanie, an earbud casually hanging from one ear, passionate Parkland teen Joaquin Oliver urges his peers to vote for lawmakers who will end gun violence in a new video released Friday.
Next month's election would have been his first chance to vote.
The 17-year-old's mannerisms and vernacular "yo, it's me" are shockingly life like, but it is just a mirage — a realistic, almost eerie artificial intelligence re-creation of the teen who was among the 17 killed in the 2018 Valentine's Day massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida, the worst school shooting in history.
From the grave, the teen, affectionately known as Guac, is now begging his peers to cast the vote that he will never cast.
"I've been gone for two years and nothing's changed, bro. People are still getting killed by guns," he implores in the video created by his parents' charity to end gun violence. "You've got to replace my vote."
After their son's death, Manuel and Patricia Oliver founded the organization Change The Ref to empower young people to make changes through education and activism on a variety of issues, most notably gun violence.
They helped craft every detail of the video, from their son's wardrobe to his mannerisms and what he would say, relying on his Twitter account and other musings to help guide them.
0 Comments