Digital Afterlife: Deceased Road Rage Victim’s Testimony Goes Blockchain—Because Even Death Can’t Stop the HODLers
In a twist that merges true crime with dystopian fintech, a man killed in a road rage incident has ’testified’ posthumously via pre-recorded deposition. The legal system’s embrace of digital evidence just took a macabre leap forward—because apparently, dead men do tell tales (especially when there’s liability at stake).
Meanwhile, Wall Street still can’t figure out how to timestamp a trade accurately. Priorities.
"This is the best I can ever give you of what I would have looked like if I got the chance to grow old," the AI version of Pelkey said. "Remember, getting old is a gift that not everybody has, so embrace it and stop worrying about those wrinkles."
Of course, the concept of using a deepfake image of a dead person to manipulate judges and jury is a new kind of problem that only generative AI could have created. Arizona Chief Justice Ann Timmer noted in a statement to ABC Arizona that while AI offers potential benefits, it could also "hinder or even upend justice if inappropriately used."
And that’s a double-edged sword that could be exploited in the future, especially as AI video generators improve in quality to produce almost lifelike outputs—and people use it more and more to animate photos of their deceased loved ones. Arizona State professor of law Gary Marchant also questioned the use of AI in courts.
“If you look at the facts of this case, I would say that the value of it [outweighed] the prejudicial effect,” he told the local news outlet AZ Family, "but if you look at other cases, you could imagine where they would be very prejudicial."
Edited by Andrew Hayward
