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Is there no limit to the depth to which the propagandists of the mainstream media will sink to push Democrat narratives? That’s a rhetorical question, because we all know the answer is no, none. But disgraced former CNN anchor Jim Acosta may have set the bar at a new low.
On Monday Acosta promoted what he declared to be “a one-of-a-kind interview” with – if you think you are you ready for this, you’re not – a talking, AI-generated likeness of Joaquin Oliver, a student slain in the 2018 Parkland school shooting. The avatar was created by his own parents in order to “deliver a powerful message on gun violence.”
It is an even creepier media interview than you might imagine. As the AI-generated version of Joaquin spits out support for the Left’s usual gun control solutions and then engages in bizarrely unnatural small talk, Acosta treats the phantom as if it truly is channeling the voice and thoughts of a living person, though it looks and sounds like anything but that.
Asked what happened to him, the AI character answers Acosta stiffly, with no natural pauses for punctuation, “I appreciate your curiosity I was taken from this world too soon due to gun violence while at school it’s important that we talk about these issues so we can create a safer future for everyone what would you like to know more about?”
Asked for his solution to gun violence, the AI character unreels (pun intended) a pre-digested Democrat talking point: “I believe in a mix of stronger gun control laws, mental health support, and community engagement. We need to make safe spaces for conversations and connections making sure everyone feels seen and heard it’s about building a culture of kindness and understanding what do you think about that?”
What I think about it is, let’s call it what it really is: gun confiscation, not control. We already have common-sense gun control and it doesn’t stop criminals or the criminally mentally ill from gaining access to guns and targeting innocents in gun-free zones, because that’s what criminals do – they break the law. What Democrats truly want is to abolish the Second Amendment and disarm American citizens, but they know that won’t sell, so they’re forced to keep pushing for more and more incremental restrictions and burdens on law-abiding gun owners.
But back to the interview. Asked by Acosta to “tell us about yourself,” the AI character responds like he’s quoting his own eulogy: “I’m all about love laughter and living life to the fullest I cherish my family and friends and always try to spread joy wherever I go though my life was cut short I want to keep inspiring others to connect and advocate for change.”
After chatting with the non-entity awkwardly about basketball and movies (“I love a good movie!” the AI Joaquin exults), full of Joaquin’s flatly-delivered platitudes about inspiration and hope, Acosta ends the interview by saying, “God bless you,” which the avatar responds to by saying “That means a lot to me.” No, it doesn’t – you’re an AI-generated illusion without emotions or sentience. Nothing “means” anything to you.
Social media users – even on the Left – were unsurprisingly appalled. “You’re interviewing an AI recreation of a person who was murdered by a spree killer?” one Bluesky user asked Acosta. “Wow. It’s hard to accept that no one around you suggested that this was probably in the worst possible taste.”
“You don’t have an interview. You’re facilitating a grotesque puppet show, using grieving parent’s heartbreak for a bit,” another Bluesky user stated. “The bar is in hell, and you still managed to trip on it.”
Conservative commentator Stephen L. Miller (not the Trump administration adviser), slammed the “journalist” for his “ghoulish act of talking to AI ghosts.”
The Federalist’s Sean Davis rightly called the interview “demonic” and blasted Acosta for conversing with “scripted AI chatbot holograms of dead people.”
Reason.com’s Robby Soave tweeted, “This is so insane and evil. It should never be done. I’m speechless.”
Acosta then interviewed Joaquin’s father Manuel, who explained that he wants viewers to know that he is fully aware this AI creation is not his real son, but he is happy just to hear Joaquin’s voice again; indeed, he says, the boy’s mother Patricia asks the avatar questions for hours, just to hear him speak. “She loves to hear him say, ‘I love you, mommy.”
I have compassion for Joaquin’s parents and don’t wish to condemn them for wanting to see and hear their son again, even if only as a technologically generated likeness. I am the father of five, and I cannot imagine the devastation of having a child snatched from you in a heinous crime like a school shooting. I don’t know how that hole in a parent’s heart could ever be filled again. It’s something I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy. However, there is something deeply disturbing about this attempt to reanimate a murdered child to fill that painful emptiness. I’m no psychiatrist, but I can’t imagine this is a healthy way to process such a tragedy.
And it’s not healthy for our society. I’m already deeply opposed to the unrelenting push of globalist elites to get us to surrender control of every aspect of our lives to AI, but embracing AI entities as friends, girlfriends, and stand-ins for deceased loved ones will warp us in ways humanity was never meant to wrestle with. It is an invitation to, as Sean Davis put it, the demonic.
In any case, there is no question that Jim Acosta’s exploitation of this grief to push the Democrat call for gun confiscation is as reprehensible as journalism can get, which is saying quite a lot.
Follow Mark Tapson at Culture Warrior
