Change the Ref — The Shotline / MullenLowe U.S.

Voices lost to gun violence make the call for change

In 2023, the U.S. experienced 43,036 gun violence deaths, and yet zero federal gun laws were passed. To this day, the phone call is one of the most effective ways to compel change in Congress, but those killed by gun violence have lost the ability to be heard, so we re-created the voices of shooting victims across the country using AI technology. We turned their AI voices into phone calls to be placed to Congress, sharing the heartbreaking stories of how they were killed and demanding change. These calls will be placed to Congress again and again until change is made.

We worked with the families of gun violence victims to collect home videos, written accounts, and social media posts of their loved ones. With these resources, we created AI voices that accurately capture their voices and personalities and crafted phone call scripts that reflect the passions, hobbies, and dreams they had when they were alive.

We built a website that anyone can visit to get a sense of who these victims were, hear their AI calls, and, most importantly, easily send the calls to Congress. With just a few clicks and a zip code, people can flood the lines of their representatives.

The Shotline is the first use of AI to hammer the phones of Congress, exert pressure, and compel elected officials to enact real change. We did the unthinkable by bringing back the voices of the dead to make calls our representatives can no longer ignore.