Netflix Docuseries “American Murder: Gabby Petito” face a violent reaction from some viewers who question whether the filmmakers’ decision to use artificial intelligence to recreate Petito’s voice is ethical.
Petito’s disappearance and death reached the headlines in September 2021, with the authorities who launched a search throughout the country for the 22 -year -old girl after having documented a road trip through the country with her fiance, Brian Laundrie, on social networks.
Laundrie was considered a “person of interest” before disappearing. Later he died for suicide, and a note was found in which the responsibility was claimed, authorities said.
The three -part series, released this week, presents interviews with Petito’s loved ones, as well as photographs, video images, maps and writing extracts. A discharge of responsibility in the first episode indicates that the entries of the Diario de Petito and the text messages were “brought to life in this series in their own voice, using voice recreation technology.”
While executive directors and producers Julia Willoughby Nason and Michael Gasparro told Us Weekly that Petito’s family gave her “blessing” to recreate their voice in the film, online spectators expressed their disgust for creative choice. Some X users called him “disturbing”, “deeply uncomfortable” and “totally unnecessary.” A video of Tiktok, which has obtained almost 500,000 points of view, described the decision as a “step too far.”
A representative of Gasparro and Nason did not immediately respond to a request for comments on Friday. A Netflix spokesman also did not respond immediately.
The use of AI technology as it is in documentaries is not new. But the public seems to remain in conflict about the auditory recreations of the voices of the people who have died.
In 2021, after AI Voice Recreation was used to give life to the notes written in “Roadrunner: a film about Anthony Bourdain”, many fans of the food presenter, who died in 2018, had similar problems with the creative choice of the director Morgan Neville. The filmmaker used a software company to create a “AI model” from Bourdain’s voice. He told the New Yorker that viewers “probably don’t know” what lines speak the AI model.
In his statement to Us Weekly, Gasparro said the filmmakers “had so much material from their parents that we could obtain.”
“All his newspapers since he was young and there were many of his writings. He documented his trips and most of his life from an early age. We thought it was really important Tell the story both through Gabby.
Merve Hickok, president and policy director of the Center of AI and Digital Policy, a non -profit research group, said that the general use of voice recreation is not inherently little ethical.
The voice cloning to give life to the already public elements to amplify or make them more accessible is a “good use”, according to Hickok. But problems may arise when filmmakers share confidential content in a deeply personal way.
“The person made the decision to keep that private,” Hickok said. “And it does not depend on us. It does not depend on any of us to make that decision in their name after they died. ”
“I think that especially in a case of murder, the voice of this person takes against his will, so return and recreate that after her for commercial reasons it is not ethical, regardless of whether there was a family approval or not,” he added Hickok.
Since then, some of Petito’s family members have spoken with the independent about the reaction to voice recreation, reflecting on their decision to give permission to filmmakers.
“I think it’s weird and because we know his real voice, [it] It’s a bit off, ”said Nichole Schmidt, Petito’s mother, to publication. “It’s hard to listen.”
“Ai or his true voice, I still get angry when he heard him knowing that he is gone,” added his stepfather, Jim Schmidt.
In the future, Hickok, who is also the founder of Aiethicist.org, sees the potential benefits of voice cloning so that the family makes “pre -existing arrangements to use the voice as a memory after a family member dies” .
But, he urged filmmakers to think about “negative risks”, and added that “there are no regulations to put sanctions around this.”
“I think the film industry has long existed, and they have very creative ways to create that emotional reaction,” Hickok said. “So, just because there is a new technology in the city does not mean that it has to be used for such purposes.”
