Jim Acosta’s AI interview is a Black Mirror monster

An absolutely ghoulish spectacle unrolled on YouTube yesterday, as disgraced former CNN Trump gadfly Jim Acosta “interviewed” teenager Joaquin Oliver. The problem is that Joaquin Oliver was killed in the Parkland shooting in 2018. This interview took place with an AI simulation of Joaquin. On what would have been Joaquin’s 25th birthday, his father, Manuel Oliver, released this Black Mirror monster into the world. To make matters worse for the AI simulation, it had to talk to Jim Acosta.

On the one hand, the stream, as of this writing, has barely 6,000 views. The average seven-year-old Roblox streamer does better than that. However, the interview is so deeply disturbing, so bald-facedly manipulative, that it deserves scrutiny. The fact that Acosta thought it worthy of air shows exactly how lost he, and opposition media in general, truly is.

In a split-screen, Acosta sits on the left, appropriately, with Joaquin on the right, wearing a “Ruby Foo’s” beanie, staring blankly at the camera with a sun-swept uncanny valley in the distance.

“Joaquin,” Acosta says, “I would like to know what your solution is for gun violence.”

“Great question,” says Joaquin. “I believe in a mix of stronger gun control laws, mental health and community engagement. We need to create 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?”

There is no word that avoids cliché. The sentences run together. AI Joaquin sounds like an autistic android.

“I would like to know more about you,” Acosta says. “Can you tell us about yourself? What did you like to do?”

Here, Acosta acknowledges that he’s talking to a simulacrum of a dead person. AI Joaquin’s answer is so terrible that it causes a dark blanket of shame to wash across anyone who bears witness to its banality. It’s like staring into a gaping void.

“I’m all about love, laughter, and living life to the fullest!” it said, lips almost syncing to the words. “I cherish my friends and family and always try to spread joy wherever I go. Though my life was cut short I want to keep inspiring others and advocating for change.”

“Joaquin,” Acosta says, unsatisfied with this generic answer, keeps pressing. “Like, what’s your favorite sport?”

“I love basketball, it’s such a fun way to connect with friends and show off some skills plus there’s nothing like the thrill of a good game.”

As the “conversation” continues, we learn that Acosta likes LeBron James, which is totally disqualifying, and, well, you get the point here. It’s just some of the grossest, saddest, most second-rate content you’ll ever watch. The world was understandably outraged at the video, but its creator, Carlos Oliver, the late Joaquin’s father, isn’t apologizing.

“An AR-15 stole Joaquin’s life, not artificial intelligence,” he tweeted. “Instead of being infuriated at AI, you should be furious at the gun violence epidemic in the United States.”

Some people may reflexively balk at AI being used like this, but it’s an inevitable feature of modernity. No one can stop it from happening. And gun violence remains as much a problem now as it was when the Parkland shooting happens. People have every reason to be angry or sad about it, and to fight for change however they best see fit.

That’s not from whence the criticism of video is emerging. People don’t hate it because of the politics. They hate it because it’s strange. This fake robot teenager talking to Jim Acosta will change nothing.

Even if Joaquin’s father created the avatar to warn people about gun violence, and even if he’s willingly participating in this spectacle, Jim Acosta is still riding sidesaddle on a family’s seemingly bottomless grief. He’s simultaneously being cheesy, dumb and sinister.

Gun violence isn’t going to stop because Joaquin Oliver’s after-death AI doppelganger loves life or enjoys the playing style of the Miami Heat. It might even move the needle backward. I can hear AI Joaquin now: “Dad, and Jim Acosta, stop it. You’re embarrassing me.”