AI in the Afterlife: Ghosts, Grief & the Brian Williams Bot

[00:00:02] What you want, when you want it, where you want it. This is The MESH. A.I.: Absolute Ignorance with Jon Reep That is me, Jon Reep, right here and I'm joined as always by the Ellen Jackson. How are you? I'm good, Jon. How are you doing? I'm doing good, all things considered. You know, we took a week off. Yeah. I am.

[00:00:31] My good buddy, your friend as well, Sean Setzer, a.k.a. The Fly Swatter, a.k.a. Sebastian, a.k.a. The Southeastern Man of Mystery is my favorite one, a.k.a. Six Feet Four Inches of Twisted Steel and Sex Appeal passed away. Yeah. He had some liver problems unchecked that led to cancer and it led to many, many operations

[00:00:58] and he didn't make it, but we took a week off to, you know, get a head straight. Well, yeah. I mean, he was a close friend of yours, man. And it was, you know, it's tough losing somebody, you know, still at our age. I mean, we're not old yet. No. So this is, this is still like ridiculously young and. Yeah. It's just tough. But yeah, you had the, I mean, the funeral was last week, last Thursday and a lot of stuff going on with that. So yeah. They asked me to say something.

[00:01:27] How did you do with that? And be a pallbearer. See, I didn't get to go to the funeral. I feel really bad. I got so tied up on other stuff I had to be, I was already committed to, but how, how was that experience? I mean, if you mind talking about it, I, I, I, I, I've never spoken at a funeral. So I've been a pallbearer. Yeah. But you know, for like, you know, grandfather or something like that, it was a, it was a little more appropriate time wise when it happened, but you know, what was that like?

[00:01:53] Well, I put, I cried. I mean, it was probably like three pages of stuff. They asked me to do it. The family asked me to get, stand up there and say something because they knew that was my, you know, comes with the job. It's your thing. I got to get up there. Yeah. And it's easy to be, for me to stand up there and be funny, but when it's a serious thing, it's a whole different thing.

[00:02:19] And I don't want to make light of what's happening. So, uh, and I don't think people used to seeing me in a serious manner. So it's awkward and weird for everybody, but, um, you just got to tough through it and do it. And I told him at the very beginning of this, but the thing I read, I said, I was asked to speak. Um, I wrote a thing on Facebook. I'm basically going to read that and add some new stuff and I'm going to try to not look at you

[00:02:44] guys because if I stop reading and look up, I'm going to lose it. Yeah. So, uh, forgive me if I seem to be going through this too fast because if I stop and linger, I'll start crying. So I gave him a disclaimer and then I got into it and lo and behold about paragraph two, I stopped and I got, I think I choked up three different times. That was tough. And there was, I mean, a lot of people

[00:03:13] started crying. I, all right. Um, I don't want to get off the seriousness of the subject, John, but do you, what's your crying status in public? Like, okay, I'm, I'm serious. Like how comfortable are you? Do you, do you cry in public? Do you cry around people? Do you, what's the deal? Yeah. You know, I'm just, I'm curious. I'm just different people have different takes on whether they are

[00:03:38] okay crying in public in front of people or what? So yeah. Well, it comes with being a dude. We're not supposed to cry. We're not supposed to, but I also think things have changed a little bit over the you know, I mean, we were grew up, you taught, you don't cry. Me and you're the same age. Yeah. We were brought up as boys don't cry. Right. And so we were taught that sort of not by parents, maybe of a society at the time. Now, fast forward, it's a different world we live in. Plus I'm an

[00:04:04] actor and I think I, uh, I, I like the fact that I can cry. Okay. You know what I mean? I don't want to hide it, especially if it's for something that's, you know, I'm sort of paying respect to, you know, so I don't, when I started crying, the only reason I tried to stop was so that I could continue reading. Sure. So you wanted to complete the job. Yeah. So it was like, you got to get the crying kind of flushed out. I wasn't ashamed of the crying. Okay. I was actually

[00:04:33] proud of the crying. Good. And in fact, odd, but when I sat back down, you know, cause there was more, uh, uh, service after that and I had to walk out of cause the pallbearers sat at the front of the, uh, church and a pew together. We all sat together, sat next to Sean's brother. Oh, wow. Yeah. Do you know he had a brother? I did not know. Me either. There's a lot about

[00:04:59] Sean. I didn't know. Yeah. I don't think any of us knew. Lisa's finding out new stuff too. Okay. Yeah. All right. So, um, we all sat together in the front and then when it was over, we were the first ones to get up and walk out, which means everyone is looking at my face as I'm walking to the back, waiting for the casket to be the pallbearer. And I was still crying,

[00:05:24] especially at the end when we saying amazing grace. Oh dude. Well, come on right there. And as I walking out, I did not try to hide my face. I let it be seen that I was crying for my friend. Yes. That's why I'm okay with it. Can you, as an actor, can you make yourself cry? I know you weren't in this situation. I know it was all that. That was all real. Can you make yourself cry though?

[00:05:50] In any, if given the situation, I can, because I can go to a moment now. I will. And Sean will be okay with this. You got a moment. Sean has given me another reason to make myself cry. All I got to do is think about it long enough. Okay. So you could, you could think about something emotionally important to you and you can make yourself cry. I can. I didn't know. I wasn't always able to do that. That's interesting. Uh, the first time I, I did it successfully for an acting job was this movie

[00:06:19] into the storm? I did. You cried for that. I'll tell you why. Okay. In the audition. Yeah. They, there wasn't a script. They said, all right, here's a scenario. Okay. The scenario is you, uh, running for your life from a tornado. You, you duck into a bank and you're under a desk and you're, you're, you're praying to God to spare your life. Right. That's the scene and go.

[00:06:45] Oh, well yeah. That kind of lends itself to some crying moments. And I totally did. Like in the audition, I was actually proud of myself when I, when I left there and the casting directors were like, Whoa, Oh, stand up, give you a little golf. They're like, wow. Nice. Nicely done. And they, and that was supposed to be a scene in the movie and they cut it out. So it was supposed to be like you kind of begging for your life, kind of in a, a really traumatic situation. Yeah. Um,

[00:07:11] bargaining with God to spare me. Forgive me of my sins. I'm surprised they didn't weave that in. Just that would have added a little extra drama to the whole film. I mean, the film had some drama already, but yeah, that would have added a nice moment for you. Right. And, uh, I would have liked to have seen that. That's what got me the film. And then they took it out. You took it out. Did they film, did they film the scene? No, they didn't even film. It was just not even, it didn't make it to the final draft of the script. Correct. Okay. Huh. So how about, well, what about you? I don't, I don't think I can cry on demand. I mean,

[00:07:40] I can't make myself cry. What about, I will cry in general. Yeah, I will cry. Yeah. Uh, I've gotten more comfortable crying the older I've gotten, but, uh, I can't make myself weird things trigger me to cry. I don't get it. Like there, I can watch something on a TV or movie and that'll probably get me the most. Okay. I go waterworks really easy on, on, uh, emotional movies or sad

[00:08:07] movies, whatever. Um, but yeah, but outside of that, I mean, I can't, I can't recall a moment to make myself cry. I don't think I can pull it off. Well, a tragedy happens. Yeah. You'll cry, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. If actual tragedy happens. Yeah. For example, our deadly departed coble. Oh dude, I was a, I was a mess for a good while on that one. Yeah. Um, so real life tragedy, real life tragedy. Don't try to hide it. I don't hide it. No. Okay. Um,

[00:08:34] and I get, I'm really bad at reacting, crying to movies or emotional things like that. Yeah. Yeah. But I, I can't, I can't do what you can do, which I think you have to do is you got to be able to do as an actor. You got to pull on some moment to make you to cry. I've tried that and I can't do it. Yeah. I really can't. I, I, some people can't, it's, it's easier for some people than others.

[00:09:00] Yeah. You have to be like sort of a, uh, an emotional, just someone who is, uh, embraces all their emotions. Some people try to like, they don't want to, they're guarded. So they don't want to fall in love too hard. Yeah. I'm like, let's go. Yeah. Bring it on. So you're an open book when it comes to emotions. Yeah. Just let them out there. Just let it go. Yeah. I don't like the face that I make when I cry. I think I have an ugly cry face. Well, I think everybody does. I mean,

[00:09:26] we all do. Yeah. Yeah. I don't, I def, I agree. I don't like the way I look when I do cry. Yeah. But because I'm crying, because I'm truly feeling like something has just happened to make me cry. I'm okay with it. So, yeah. Some people have worse cry faces than others. I think mine's not great. And I don't like the way I sound like, you know, like a sob, like there's a cry where you, you, your eyes feel full of water and then some, some waterworks come down the face. Then this kind

[00:09:56] of where you were like, you know, like, I can't cry. I didn't do that. Okay. But I did crack up and tears were coming out of my eyes. All right. Can we just be honest for a second? Yes, please. There have been times where I've heard people cry and they're crying about something extremely emotional, something sometimes traumatic, but they're crying is actually kind of hilarious. And I feel bad for them because it actually pulls me out of the situation where it's like,

[00:10:26] I'm hearing this laugh and it's not the laugh. I'm hearing this crying and it's just, I can't be serious in that moment because the crying is too much. Yeah. And then it's like, it's all, you know, can't talk. They're just, it's just over the top. So, I mean, I feel, I feel God, I feel like such an asshole when I say that, but I mean, I, it is really funny though. It is because, you know, it's a, uh, one of the things that makes me laugh are, uh,

[00:10:53] uncontrollable things that happen to us. If you fall down, you didn't plan on that. That's gravity. That's hilarious to me. You get kicked in the nuts and you, that's funny. Uh, crying is something that you can't control if it's, if it's real. True. And if what, you know, and that's in and of itself is kind of funny, not the tragedy that they're crying about, but the act itself, I get, I get, I get what you're saying and you're not weird for thinking it. So I, uh, and I'm going to withhold

[00:11:23] names from this, but, um, I attended a funeral one time and there was somebody there, somebody that I knew who was attending the funeral. And we're going through the, the line where you go up to the, the casket. It's like the procession. It's like a receiving thing, I guess. Yeah, sure. You know, and you're going up there past the casket. And there was somebody that I knew

[00:11:49] that just lost it beyond control. Yeah. To the point where it, again, it just brought me out of the situation where like, I am finding myself kind of having to fight back, not laughing. Oh, wow. And I'm like, God, I feel so bad about this, but it's like, it is just that reaction that

[00:12:12] was just so visceral. Yeah. But it was, it was funny. God, I just, yeah. Anyway, it's, it was the male or female. I'd rather not say that. Okay. It's fine. Cause there's a chance. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I don't want to be, I don't really want to be saying what's funny about it. It's not, but it was, it was, it was bad. Okay. Well, we'll leave it at that. I don't want to get you in trouble. That's right. Yeah. Um, but yeah. So, you know, our buddy, Andrew Killian with the high school with very funny guy. Oh yeah. He was there and I mean,

[00:12:42] he's the one to introduce me to Sean and I'll, I'll, I'll end it with this. Cause we got AI stuff to talk about. I got important news to get into it. But I mean, I want to catch people up. Yeah, sure. I mean, yeah. So speaking of crying, you know, Andrew Killian was my best friend in high school. One of the funniest guys ever. Nicest guy ever. He was a Paul bear. We sat right next to each other. He's the one to introduce me to Sean. When we were done, you

[00:13:07] know, you carry the casket to the burial site. You put it on the thing. Right. And then the preacher says some things and then we all had boutonnieres and we go, we walk and we put our boutonnier on top of the casket. This is another emotional thing. Oh, that's a tough one. Yeah. And we're done. And me and Andrew were just kind of, now we're just kind of standing behind everybody just talking about, and I could see Andrew's lip going and he was just like,

[00:13:35] I can't believe this too soon. And I knew he needed, and we just held each other and we embraced him. I've never seen Andrew cry in my life. And we just, you could feel his body sobbing. And I was right there with him and we both did it. And I, our wives were standing off. They were like, almost like so empathetic with us, you know, it was tough. They were empathetic. They weren't like, they weren't laughing. They weren't coming. No, no, man.

[00:14:01] I don't man up. So man up fellas guys. There's people looking at you. Stop it. No, that's really cool though. Yeah, that's really, that's a, that's a good, that's, I mean, I hate the tragedy of the moment, but that was a good moment. Yeah, that's good. It was. Um, and I think we have some news and I could, I could, uh, uh, connect these. Yes. There's a, there's a, there's a way to pivot here. I think there is. Okay. So let's, let's talk a little AI news. I mean,

[00:14:28] we, you know, you know, all we do in this show, John's talk about AI news. That's all we do. Yeah. That's all we've ever talked about. No, we've never spent any time talking about anything. Not at all. So I just want to make sure we're staying focused on our topic here. Uh, I did have a good, uh, uh, I was in, where was I? The last gig I did. Yeah. Oh God. Where now it's, that's bugging me. Anyway, I, you know how I do the segment where

[00:14:53] I talk about, uh, AI and, uh, let's see here. I was in Lubbock Waco. Okay. Waco, Waco, Texas. All right. The AI part got a huge laugh in Waco. And just to remind people listening, if this is your first time listening, John has a, a bit he can do in his show where he

[00:15:19] may actually have AI write some jokes for him in the location where he is. And he reads them to the crowd to see how the crowd reacts to an AI written joke as a way of promoting this very podcast. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I tell people like, I've been working on a lot of things. I've got two podcasts. I bring this up and I say, in fact, I, I had it right a bit about you guys. I want to read you. Oh yeah. I'd like to hear this. Uh, cause I started saving

[00:15:43] these. Okay. Um, cool. Waco is a wild place. It's the only town where you can find a Baylor grad, a wild chicken, a conspiracy theorist and a Magnolia decorator all in the same H E B. And I don't know what any of that means. So, okay. So obviously AI chat GPT, whatever, just went out and did a Google search on Waco, Texas. Like, all right, here are some important things. Yep. Baylor university, uh, this and that and that. But the last thing it said,

[00:16:13] I don't understand that he said all in the, what was it? The initials H E B H E B. So there's all initials or is that a word? Those are, um, initials. Okay. Uh, it's a grocery store, a chain of grocery stores. There's a chain of grocery stores called H H E B. I don't know what it stands for. We can look it up, but so that's a Texas specific. I think

[00:16:36] so. So if I type in H E B. All right. Yeah. Yeah. H E B, um, curbside pickup and grocery delivery. I don't know what it stands for. It does seem like Texas. Uh, I'm looking and I think the Texas is the only place. Yeah. Cause there's a big banner on the homepage. It's like big thanks Texas giveaway. So I'm assuming it is pretty much a Texas chain. Yeah. All

[00:17:00] right. Well, that got like a huge ha ha ha laugh. Um, apparently they're wild chickens and consider conspiracy theorists could be David Koresh, the Waco and then Magnolia decorator. Apparently there's someone who from that area that's famous for, uh, uh, home shopping network or interior decorator. Oh no, I know who it is. It's the Joanna games. Yes. Joanna games. Yeah. And I wasn't aware. I don't watch that stuff. So I'm not into it.

[00:17:26] Um, yeah, I don't either. I don't know what you're talking about. You lit up. Totally just gassed. No, I just know that her company's name is Magnolia. Yeah. And she and her husband do like a home refurnishing show, something like that. Yeah. Okay. Got it. Um, and then it goes, or so I hear, y'all have history to big history. You've got cult documentaries. That's the Waco

[00:17:54] date. Oh, cult documentaries, cowboy legends and college football that could baptize you in beer. And let's not forget about Dr. Pepper was invented here. Dr. Pepper was invented in Waco, Texas. Apparently. I mean, well, that's what Chad GPT says. They all laugh. They agree. They got it. Yeah. Okay. And then the funny line was the Waco is the only town where you can get type two diabetes and 23

[00:18:23] flavors. No, that's pretty good. That was got a huge laugh. I'm like, good job. What is the 23 flavors refer to that? That's Dr. Pepper. If you look up Dr. Pepper, go, go ahead. Go Dr. Pepper. How many flavors? They, they had a commercial for a while that was all about their 23 flavors in Dr. Pepper. Okay. There are 23 flavors of Dr. Pepper. I don't know if we're allowed to know them all,

[00:18:50] but you know, if that's a secret, but the flavor should be, I mean, they're obviously just cherry. They're selling the flavors, right? Yeah. Up here. They are. Oh, you want to hear what they are? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I can, I can run these off. Does it have all 23? Yeah. Okay. These are the 23 flavors. We have to know now. Cola, cherry, licorice, amaretto, almond, vanilla, blackberry, apricot, caramel, pepper, annie's, A-N-I-S-E. Do you know what that is?

[00:19:19] A-N-I-S-E. No, I don't. I've never heard of it. Sarsaparilla, ginger, molasses, lemon, plum, orange, nutmeg, cardamom. Nope. Allspice, coriander, juniper. Okay. I think they're just making stuff up now. Yeah. Birch? Birch. Isn't that like a wood? Yeah. Yeah. It is. And prickly ash. Okay. I think this guy on Reddit is just making up half of them. Okay. I don't

[00:19:47] think those are real. Right. So those are the flavors. But they, I've seen commercials where they say. 23 flavors, blah, blah, blah, blah. I don't think I've ever heard that. It was a thing. But can you find a video of it? 23 flavors, Dr. Pepper commercial. See if you can find that. 23 flavor commercial. Yeah. But it's a. But if I go to the store, I basically

[00:20:09] see one. So they don't sell the other 30, 22. It's 23 flavors in one Dr. Pepper. Oh, it's not like Dr. Pepper. Ginger, Dr. Pepper, cherry. Well, I'm used to hearing if there's a soft drink and they have it in multiple flavors like an ice cream. This is a formula that makes up a one singular Dr. Pepper. That makes better sense. Because here I am picturing that there's

[00:20:36] like a birch Dr. Pepper you buy on the grocery store. And I'm like, what the hell? I'm not going to buy a birch Dr. Pepper. Okay. But you're saying those are the flavors that make up Dr. Pepper. The ingredients of one Dr. Pepper. Well, then they should call it ingredients. But yeah, exactly. But these flavors mix it. Okay. That makes more sense. Right. Right. Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah. Like there's like, but you know what? Now that you brought that up,

[00:21:04] they should go ahead and start doing that. Okay. So here's, here's a commercial thing they've got. And it's like, yes, it's Dr. Pepper, a unique blend of 23 flavors. Yeah. Okay. All right. Yeah. 23 flavors blended together into the magic that is Dr. Pepper now. There you go. Okay. All right. So all started in Waco though. Yep. All started in Waco. Very cool. And that, so this little AI bit worked very well in Waco and in Lubbock. I was in Lubbock before that. And

[00:21:33] Lubbock is where, but buddy Holly's from Lubbock. So there is a, there's a Dr. Pepper museum. Right. Okay. Yeah. I assume in Waco. Most likely. I don't know. I've, I've heard of these things. Dr. Pepper has a cult following. Yeah. No. Waco, Texas. There is a Dr. Pepper museum. Yeah. Have you ever been to the Pepsi museum here in North Carolina? I have not. I have not,

[00:21:58] but I would like to go. Is it in Hickory? No. Okay. The Pepsi store and museum is supposedly where Pepsi originally was, is in New Bern, North Carolina. Yeah. Gotcha. Not terribly interesting. I mean, I'm just saying it's, it's a museum. You've already been. I've been. Yeah. Okay. And it's, I mean, you just walk in and you get free. Here's how we

[00:22:24] made Pepsi like all these years ago. Some doctor I think made it, it was meant to be a, it was called Brad's drink. It was like the first name of Pepsi Cola. Hmm. Brad's drink. Oh yeah. And I think it was made in medicinal at first and then it became a drink. And that's basically what the museum is. It's like, yep, that's what we did. Yeah. Here's a couple pictures

[00:22:49] about us doing it and that's it. So it's like, you know, I've gone to New Bern and people are just like, Oh yeah, we need to go to the Pepsi museum. It's like, really? I mean, I don't know. Yeah. I mean, I would rather go like, well, Coca-Cola, uh, they've got a cool museum. There's this huge, it's huge. It's I'm not been, but I know it's a big deal. I've been a couple of times and it's, it's a pretty big deal. It is actually, it's actually all right. Yeah.

[00:23:17] But Pepsi, I mean, if you're going to go tour something, you should go tour the wild turkey distillery. Yes. That would have been, that would be a much more fun wine tasting or something. All right. But go ahead. Is there anything else? No, I was just going to say that speaking of AI and where I was and it worked like a charm. So good. And if you're listening to this show, because I told you to at those shows stick around, we're going to get into some

[00:23:44] good AI news right now. Let's do that right now. So John, this is, this is a story that we came and we came across and, uh, it kind of dovetails a little bit into something you and I've talked about weeks ago in this very show where we talked about the idea of, could we use AI to eventually embody a loved one who has passed away? Right. In other words, before they pass

[00:24:10] away, we have got their voice, we've got all this information about them. We kind of inject AI with all these memories and whatever else. So yeah. So here's a story where there is a, uh, there was a gentleman, uh, his name was Christopher Pelkey, sadly, uh, slain. He's passed away. Uh, it was part of a, I think somebody, it was a road rage incident. Right. Uh, he was killed.

[00:24:38] Yeah. I've heard this, but I don't know much about it. Go continue. So he, he was killed and they are, uh, they were going to court to do the sentencing or to kind of find out, you know, to charge the person who did this. And, uh, a woman who is the sister of, uh, of this gentleman who died, use artificial intelligence to generate a video of how her late brother,

[00:25:05] Chris Pelkey would address the courtroom and specifically the man who fatally shot him in this road rage incident. The gentleman, the gentleman's name who shot him was a Gabriel Hercocitas. This was back in 2021. So she used AI to use the video, a video of her brother and the voice of her brother that she was able to generate. And she created a video and they played this video in the

[00:25:32] courtroom where it's Chris from beyond the grave. Yeah. Talking to the courtroom, the judge, and specifically the person that shot him. Yeah. All right. That, all right. That story sounds, I'm like, Ooh, I get cold chills. I'm like, that's yeah. Morbid, morbid could be effective. I mean, if you really want to get the judge emotional about the sentencing or whatever kind of a penalty is going

[00:26:01] to be applied or whatever, like this could be a good way to do it. Yeah. But then I saw the video. So I can show you the video. Yeah. But can I ask some questions? Sure. Go ahead. We'll tease the video. I haven't seen this video, but, um, the sister is the one who made it. Uh, yeah. So she had the idea come to her to use artificial intelligence to generate a video of how her late brother would address the courtroom and the man that shot her. So she must be, you know, sort of computer tech savvy

[00:26:30] to even come up with this idea. She would be the first person to do it. Well, I would think a sibling probably could do that. Um, I mean, no one else has done it before her, right? I mean, not in a courtroom that I'm aware of. Yeah. I mean, we've used AI people have used AI to generate if they have the voice of someone before they pass away and they've got photos. I mean, you can do, I've seen some people do some things with members who have passed away. I've not seen it used

[00:26:56] in a courtroom situation to try to elicit some sort of, you know, response, reaction, whatever. Uh, my, my question is, is it, is this an attorney's idea or the sister's idea? I get it was the sister's idea. Okay. Um, because if it's effective now attorneys are, we're going to copy what was essentially her idea to do. So here's, here's, here's a little bit more of the story. Okay. Uh,

[00:27:21] on, uh, this day that this happened, uh, which was just last week, um, Wales, who is her, his sister, Stacey Wales is his sister, the deceased sister. Well, stood up before the court and played the video in what AI experts say is likely the first time the technology has been used in the U S to create an impact statement read by an AI rendering of the deceased victim. Since the census hearing,

[00:27:49] the attorney for the guy who shot, uh, Chris Pelkey has filed a notice of appeal. He said he agreed that victims have an unfettered right to share their views at sentencing. The issue, however, is to what extent did the trial judge rely on the AI video in fashioning ascendance? Now the judge, there's a video out too, which I have also of the judge's reaction to having watched this video

[00:28:14] in the courtroom. Okay. So yeah, it was definitely something the sister did. Uh, you know, the, the attorney on the, the, the seaside obviously thought it would be effective. So they did it and they played it in the courtroom. Yeah. And that's, that's a followup question. Um, in this road rage incident, did he die right away or did he get shot and then die like months later? Did he have

[00:28:41] time to help the sister compose what he wanted to say or record his voice saying it? Or is it strictly made up by, you know what I mean? That's a good question. Let me see. I'm trying to read ahead and see if I can, I can, it's a good, very good question. I don't know. Yeah. Uh, I don't know if maybe we could find that out. Um, but as I'm watching, I mean, we can find it out in a minute,

[00:29:06] but yeah, it's a, to me that matters because if he on his deathbed before dying says, I want this to happen and just talking to his sister about it and then they never got around to filming it. And then she said, well, I'm basically doing what he wanted or is she projecting what he would have wanted, uh, and just making it up herself. Those are two totally different things.

[00:29:34] So miss Wales, his sister said she wrote the words that the AI version of Chris Pelkey read in court. Okay. So based on how forgiving she knew her brother to be. Okay. All right. So at least we know that she wrote it whether or not they recorded or got his permission before he passed away. If he was incapacitated for some time, but still, I don't know that I cannot find anywhere. Interesting.

[00:30:00] To know the deal there. But you know, the thing is if they've got a recording of his voice in any way, shape or form before he passed away, like on a video recording or whatever, which actually I'll show you what the video itself did include. It was his AI persona and voice, but then it also, the video they played also had some home video footage of him. Oh wow. So there is video footage of him. So you could take the voice from that and have AI craft a voice. So he, they, they may not have had to have any

[00:30:30] involvement from him whatsoever before he passed away. Yeah. If I'm an attorney for the guy who murdered this guy, I would say, well, we can't prove any of this. He would have said any of this. Yeah. And I think that's, that's my take on it. Is it? Okay. Yeah. I think you're basically, it's no different than saying, okay, I'm just going to write whatever I want to write as the

[00:30:55] sister. I'm just going to have a, it's a little, it's a little bit of a very slippery slope. It's a slippery slope. And that's actually a quote exactly in the story. Wow. That you are correct on. Um, yeah, it's a slippery slope because then I mean, you could have the dead person say whatever you want. Yeah. I mean, and you know, yeah, you got, I don't, I don't agree with it. I don't think it's

[00:31:20] right. Let me see the video. Okay. Here's the video of Chris Pelkey, um, generated by AI addressing the courtroom in the judge and the defendant in this situation. This is not what I thought he would look like. Okay. Yeah. Just to be clear for everyone seeing this, I'm a version of Chris Pelkey recreated through AI that uses my picture and my voice profile. I was able to be digitally

[00:31:47] regenerated to share with you today, but here is insight into who I actually was in real life. Take a look. All right. Uh, I'm Chris Pelkey. Uh, I served with the United States army in the infantry, um, from upstate New York. And what else? Where'd you deploy? Where'd I deploy? I went to, uh, Baghdad in, uh, 2006, 2008. And then I went to Afghanistan and, uh, Oh nine to 10.

[00:32:14] Um, I think the, the number one thing is, is God hit pause. So right now that we're looking at a real video of him being interviewed by somebody for what purpose? I don't know. Yeah. It doesn't really say, but it may just be some sort of news interview or some, some sort of something. He was in like a hometown boy comes back from the military does good. Who knows? It could be, I don't know

[00:32:41] what it's from, but it is actually him. But the first half of what you heard, right? The first, that was the AI generated voice and we're seeing an image of him, but animated version of his photograph to move his lips with the, with the voice. Yeah. It's very good. You think so? Well, I, is this a real picture of him that just made the mouth move? If it is, he looks a little different than he looks, he looks very different. Okay. Play it again. Like I am trying not to be

[00:33:10] insensitive about this whole situation, but here's the deal. I don't think it looks like him. Okay. And it sounds painfully, obviously that yes, it is an AI generated bot. Yeah. So it's like, if I'm the judge, listen to this. I'm like, all right, come on people. Yeah. Like how really, how do we know he said these words? He did not say these. Because then when it cuts to the real video of him being interviewed, it doesn't sound like the way he would talk. So I'm like, all right, then right away, I'm like, I think if I had more time with the original video before I saw this one,

[00:33:41] I would have, maybe I would agree more with you. I just haven't seen enough of him as a real person. All right. Well here, I'm going to play a little bit more of him in real life and then it's going to cut to another AI generated clip. Here we go. So let's just do some of that. Yeah. God and love people, you know, being in that community with people where we can lift each other up and support each other and have that community of, uh, of like-minded brethren, you know, combat veterans, people that believe in the Lord and, you know, people that are sober and

[00:34:08] trying to live that good life, you know? So, you know, it's just all about God and all about people. So as you can see from my video, I recorded in 2021. This here is a true representation of He sounds like, oh, that reporter Williams. What's the, uh, the, the news reporter last name, Williams? Like a, uh, national, like a national news. Yeah. Yeah. He got in trouble for lying about getting shot at. Oh, is that Brian Williams?

[00:34:38] Brian Williams? Yeah. Yeah. He sounds like him. The AI sounds like, does sound like Brian Williams. I wonder if the AI was using Brian Williams's voice as kind of a guide. Hang on now. I'm going to type in. I want to hear you. We're going to do a compare and contrast. So I would like to make my own impact statement. Oh my God, it does. Now I can't not hear it. That's exactly his voice. That is Brian Williams. So I don't think this sounds like the real guy. The more I'm listening to, cause you let me listen to the original guy. Right.

[00:35:08] Now I'm hearing this. You're right. Now all I hear is Brian Williams. Yeah, that's true. Look at this. Hang on. So hello everybody. Thank you so much for being here today. It means a lot. I can't tell you how humbled I am for those that spoke up for me. Everyone who flew in. All right, pause. See, I don't buy this. Now let's do this. It got a little wearing. It felt like I was narrating a big change in this country.

[00:35:37] Our daughter Allison had given birth four days before I signed off. Yep. Now play that. Those who are watching this remotely. It's the same. It sounds like that's nuts. We just stumbled upon something. So is AI using, I mean, I had always, I've always heard there's been some AI chat bots that actually kind of adopt a celebrity voice that they have a huge bank of, like all the dialogue for that person.

[00:36:07] Brian Williams is on. He's everywhere. He was on news like every night for years. So you got plenty of dialogue. And like, if they're needing to recreate a voice for somebody, it's like, well, we just person sounds a little bit like Brian Williams. So we're going to put on the Brian Williams chat bot and we're good to go. I think that's what it seems like to me. But see, but here's the thing. You're right. If I'm watching this, he looks fatter right here. He does. And it's like, if I'm watching this in the courtroom, I'm like, I'd be like, you would

[00:36:33] be more like, okay, maybe he did feel the way that the sister said he feels, but just as an AI job, I'm not happy with this. I mean, in the AI, and this is no fault of AI. I mean, this is what it's got to work with, but it's just a static. It's just a shot of him sitting there staring at the camera. There's no real, he's not conveying much emotion because again, he can't. Yeah. It's like, I'm just, I'm not buying it, man.

[00:36:59] I'm not, but I, he very well may be this person in real life, but I don't think the AI is doing a very convincing job of making me feel like I'm really watching him right now. Right. And do you think this, let's, let's play some more of it. I mean, this is interesting. I wish I could be with you all today to your honor, judge Lang. Thank you for making yourself available to see this case to the end, especially when the rescheduled trial conflicted with your daughter's spring break. I see. And this is the dog.

[00:37:28] This is manipulative. Yeah. I think. Yeah. I mean, she, he didn't say that. Okay. No, he didn't say that. Chris did not say anything about the judge said anything about the daughter's spring break. Right. No, he will. The judges is saying, Hey, I apologize. I know we had to reschedule because of your spring break with your daughter at the judge. So you're kind of pandering a little bit to them, but it's not Chris saying those things. Right. Right. It's his sister saying, Ooh, here's what I want Chris to say. Yeah. And typing it out. Yeah.

[00:37:58] I don't like this a bit. Yeah. Okay. I don't either. I wonder in this case, was it allowed? Was it this? Here's, here's my question. Okay. If it's one thing, if you want this guy to specifically address the guy who killed him and have no influence on sentencing, I'm okay with it that way. Okay. But if it, if it's influencing a judge or a jury in some way, no can do.

[00:38:26] Like if you really just want this guy to, you know, see this, the guy that did it, you can go to the jail and just hold up an iPad and play it for it. Exactly. But maybe not in the courtroom. Well, I mean, if this is being used to fashion a sentence, I mean, that's the intent. I think they have to do it. I mean, why else would you do it? Now, look, I, um, right. That's true.

[00:38:50] I have seen court cases where, uh, family members of the deceased can address the courtroom and address the person who, who committed the crime or killed that individual. And I think that's incredibly effective because it's like, all right, you're hearing from the family members. They're talking in their voice about their loved one that is now gone. And like, that's great. I mean, I think that's effective, but to kind of, all it is is a big fake job saying, well,

[00:39:20] this is what my brother would have said. Yeah. Like, well, do we know for sure? But we don't know. We don't. I agree with you. All the things you just said, I agree with, but it's not. So it could have hurt the case because it's obvious to me that it is what you just said. And a smart judge would see that and go like, you're trying to manipulate me and I don't like it. And therefore the sentence thing will be less. So it could have backfired is what I'm saying. Very well could have.

[00:39:49] Although I don't think it did. Okay. So there's actually a video. Well, also I'm happy about that. The guy killed this dude. Well, yeah, look, he deserves whatever sentence he was meant to give. I'm not, believe me, I am not trying to say that the guy who committed the road rage is like, should have a lesser sentence or whatever. I'm just saying, I don't think this AI video that would go this route is the way to go. Yeah. Here's the actual judge. Oh, who his reaction after seeing Chris Pelkey's AI impact statement on May 1st.

[00:40:18] This is what he said. I love that AI. Thank you for that. He loved it. Yeah. And as angry as you are and justifiably angry as the family is, I heard the forgiveness. My name is to hope to see this proceed. Appreciate it. But so did I. See, and that, I just don't buy that. I'm sorry. I don't think that was the right reaction to this.

[00:40:45] Do you think this judge is simply saying these things to appease the sister and the living? Maybe. And maybe it didn't influencing, but there's no need to pile on. Yeah. He should have just said anything. He should have said, thank you for that. Thank you for that. And that's it. That's it. And in the back of his mind, he should have been like, okay, that was interesting. Yeah. But it doesn't affect how I'm going to sentence things. I'm still going to sentence it on the fact of the case.

[00:41:13] Now, granted, if Chris Pelkey's sister had got up and said, this is who my brother was, and here's the kind of things he believed. I'm like, all right, that's cool. Yeah. I believe that. Yeah. It's coming from her mouth. Right. But again, she's typing in a computer. This is what Chris is going to say. And they're having Chris say it on a video. I'm like, we have no idea. I mean, you're right. How is this even allowed in court? I don't know. Because now everybody can do this. Oh, yeah.

[00:41:42] If it's allowed now. So let's just say. Anybody can do this. Let's just say somebody that we know gets murdered. And we're like, all right, yeah. So we really want to make sure this guy who did it, we want him to burn. I mean, we want him fried. So we're going to create a video of our dead loved one. Yep. And we're going to have them say the most sentimental stuff about how, you know,

[00:42:11] they were just wanted to, they were just so, they wanted to give so much back to the world. And they hate that their time was cut short. And they had all these big plans with families and the children. And it's like, you know, but I also forgive the person who did this. You know, it's like, you could just craft whatever type of character you want for your loved one. Yeah. And then you got a judge who's just like, oh, wow. That was really, you know, really powerful. I'm like, ah, but it wasn't. It's acting. It was fake. Yep. I don't.

[00:42:42] Here's what we need. I don't think it should be allowed. Okay. I agree. I think so too. Here's what I think should be allowed. And I think we should be doing. I think I feel like I need to record myself now for any possible scenario, any possible scenario, like have a library of videos. Like, okay, okay. This is what to play in the courtroom. If I'm violently murdered, put it in a time capsule cloud. Yeah.

[00:43:11] And then like, okay. Give it the key word to one person. That's right. Here it is. Here, here, hit a, if I cease to be go into this cloud storage I've got, and there's going to be like 18 different videos. Yeah. Choose the one that is the closest to whatever happened to me. Yeah. Okay. Car crash. Here you go. All right. Yeah. Uh, it was a drunk driver hit me. Okay. Here's the one for drunk driver. Yeah. Here's the one for, I got stabbed in the alley.

[00:43:41] Yes. Yes. It just happened. Like, hi, I'm Alan. And yeah, this sucks. I got stabbed. I had big plans. I did. I had big plans. That's so, I mean, I'm with you. I think it's, it's crazy that the judge even allowed this at all, because if you're not alive, you can't speak. Right. Sadly. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:44:11] It's not, um, what was the verdict? Oh, I don't know. I mean, I wonder what the, I want to, let's finish the judge's thought. I want to, Oh, he, uh, the shooter, Gabriel received the maximum sentence of 10 and a half years for the charge of manslaughter. Okay. It's a maximum. Yeah. He got the max. He got the max. Now there again, I'm not saying that the AI video influenced the judge's opinion. We don't know. He would never tell us given us. What do you have given 10 and a half years to begin with? Right. Um, but I mean,

[00:44:41] it didn't sound like it dissuaded him at all. Like it didn't turn them off from anything. Yeah. As I said, I like to think I was going to do that. I don't know that I would. The beauty in what, and I call him Christopher. I always call people by their last names. It's a formality of the court, but I feel like calling him Christopher. Christopher. As we've gotten to know him today. Oh, wow. I feel that that was genuine. It's not. He totally got duped. Obvious forgiveness of Mr. Wilkis.

[00:45:12] Reflects the character I heard about. Hang on. This judge. Yeah. I think this is. This judge. This is stupid. He's. Yeah. We got to get him on the show. He's obviously a big fan of AI. No. And look, kudos to him for that. Okay. Yeah. I like that. Yeah. He's cool. He's already into AI. He's already into AI. It's like, I'm on board. He's like, you know, that's obviously was Chris talking. No, dude, it wasn't. That's horrible. Now the more, I'm glad you,

[00:45:39] I'm glad you painted the picture this way because in the beginning, I thought kind of neat, kind of cool. Yeah. That you could do that. But I mean, that is not the guy. That's not the person who got killed. That's the sister projecting these feelings on. And sure, maybe he had, he would have forgiven, but I'm, it takes a long time for me to get to forgiveness. If you kill me or anybody in my life.

[00:46:09] So I'm not going to forget. I mean, I'm a Christian too, and I would eventually forgive for my own sake, for my own peace of mind, but it ain't going to be that day. It might be five years, 10 years, 20 years down the road. John, if something happened to you, yeah, let's say walking out of the studio today, we do have some, we do have some sketchy people that hang out around inside the building at night. Yeah. Let's just say something tragic. I'm not, yeah, I'm not wishing this. Okay. I'm just saying, let's say this happened. Okay.

[00:46:38] And you were violently attacked and you are no longer with us as of tonight. Okay. I would go into AI. I have enough video and audio of you. I can generate an AI version of you very, very easily. Um, I would craft the most heartfelt story about you and have you read that. Like, you know, well, I was violently murdered.

[00:47:05] The shame of it was I was on my way to the soup kitchen where I work every night and to help, help those in need. Yeah. But I guess I won't be able to do that anymore. Um, you know, yeah. Uh, I leave behind 50% of all of my assets to my best friend's Randall and Jackson. See, why couldn't you do that? Oh, Oh my gosh. Like the wheels. Why couldn't you do if, if these people are falling for these AI videos,

[00:47:33] the very slippery slope in which we speak of. It's like, Oh yeah, I got a, a, I got a video of John, uh, reading out his updated. Well, this is really the real one. The one that's in paper is not, is not real. You know, this is what he recorded. And if there's a dumb judge like this, they're going to be like, Oh my God. Oh, it's AI. I love it. I'm a big fan. Great. It's good. Everything to Alan fired up. Whatever AI John says, that's what we're doing. I don't like it. I don't like it. Not one bit,

[00:48:03] but you're right. The wheel, anything. I mean, estates. Yeah. surely, surely nobody's gonna be able to pull out an AI version of somebody for a will reading or for it. But I mean, but I think that's just as important as a sentencing of their crime. you know, 10 years in jail where maybe had we heard a different version of the story? And I don't know the whole story. We don't. Maybe he would have been the three to five years. I don't know. If you've got 10,

[00:48:32] he's going to do five. Right. Yeah. So maybe it would have been, well, that's the, but we don't know. That's weird to me that the judge is 10 years. The judge isn't going to come out and say, yeah, I guess it's a manslaughter, which is a little different than like premeditated. Yeah. Then first degree murder type of thing. But the fact that the judge was like, so on board with it and was like, yeah, I love it. Yeah. He shouldn't have been that gung ho about it. I agree. If I was, he should have kept that. If I was Gabriel, the defendant, like Gabriel,

[00:49:01] who sounds like he's probably a piece of shit. Okay. I'm just going to say he's not a good person. Agreed. But he's probably sitting there in the courtroom. Like, really guys, guys, come on, come on. What is like, look, I know I screwed up. I know I did something bad. I know I'm going to jail for a long time. Right. But really, but really, seriously, I don't know. He could have just played a cartoon. Look, Papa Smurf said,

[00:49:31] that's insane to me. Yeah. Maybe this Gabriel guy needs to make it his own AI video of a different judge. That's above this judge. Right. It's like, yeah, I could obviously tell that that was AI. I appreciate the message that was shared, but I know for a fact that this was not the real guy. So it's not legal basis whatsoever. Yeah. I just, yeah. I mean, yeah. When you told me this story and I looked it up and read about it, or you'd heard about the story in passing,

[00:50:00] I immediately thought the same way you did. I'm like, Oh, that's really good. That's, that's really cool. That's a good use of AI. Right. But now watching this, I'm like, no, that sucks. That's not good at all. It's morbid. I wonder who, like, she's older, younger, other, other siblings. Are the parents still alive? Was it just one person who pushed this through? Were they all in on it?

[00:50:30] Was the attorney in on it? Who made it? Was it, I'd like to know what AI app made this thing. You know, wasn't that great? Like, okay. So we both agreed that this AI is not that great. Didn't really look like him. It was like a fat version of him. Didn't sounds like Brian Williams. Imagine if they had done a good job of it. Yeah. And that's what will be the next one will be. And it's only getting better. Yeah, it's true.

[00:50:57] So if they did a good job of this and you wouldn't even know that it's AI, it would bleed right into a real video of him sitting there talking. Okay. I got a little more of the story. Okay. You know, I'll feel a little bit more. So the, the woman who was a sister, her last name's Wales. I'm just going to call her Wales. Um, she went to her husband, Tim, who has experience using AI for work. So her husband's the one, the AI guy, he's his idea. We might've been her,

[00:51:26] her take on it is that she's like, all right, look, my brother doesn't get a say. He doesn't get a chance to speak because he's not here anymore. We can't let that happen. We have to give him a voice. Okay. I understand that desire. So Tim, yes. So Tim and their business partner, Scott, Tim and Scott had only a few days to produce this video. The challenge is there's no single program built for a project like this. They also needed a long,

[00:51:54] clear audio clip of Pelkey's voice and a photo of him looking straight to the camera. Neither of which they had still using several different AI tools. Wells, his husband and Scott and Tim managed to create a convincing video using a four and a half minute video of Pelkey, his funeral photo and a script that Wells prepared. They digitally removed the sunglasses on top of Pelkey's hat and trimmed his beard,

[00:52:22] which had been causing technological issues. So the beard was freaking out the AI bot. He couldn't do it. So they had to give him a trimmed beard in the AI video. It still looked out of control. It did a little bit, but I mean, so it was even wilder before. So in that image that they used was his funeral picture. Yeah. So he did look like that. Yeah, but it looks like it looks enhanced. He gained weight after that original video. Possibly. Okay. They said, well,

[00:52:49] he was heavily involved in making sure the video felt true to life said recreating her brother's laugh was especially tough because most clips of Pelkey were filled with background noise. Blah, blah, blah. This is crazy. Yeah. So they're saying, you know, look, now here's a positive that came out of this. They're saying the AI generated video of Chris kind of helped with the family's healing. Okay. I can see that as a good tool for that. Again,

[00:53:18] you're still hearing. You're not really hearing from your brother. You're hearing from what your sister wants your brother to say and what she believes he would say. But again, we don't know for sure. So I don't know. But I mean, at least if it's used for the family to like, Hey, here's Chris and Chris is talking to us and this is kind of nice to see. I could see that as a, it could be helpful. Yeah. But the family, but the corporate, I know something on the legal side. I'm with you on that. We are in agreement on that.

[00:53:48] I would like to, you know, I've said it before. It'd be nice to have an AI dad or now Sean. I mean, we, so can I, I don't know if this is possible. I don't know if it's appropriate for me to mention. No, it's okay. We have a lot of video of Sean. We have a lot of video and audio. We have a lot of audio of Sean. Yeah. We have a lot of information about Sean. The tools are there. We can create an AI Sean. Yeah. I'm again, I'm,

[00:54:18] I feel really weird saying this because again, we, you know, we miss them and all that, but I'm just saying it's more of a theory. Yeah. Yeah. How close are we to the idea in the near future of saying, you know what? Yeah, we're ready to do it. Let's, let's create a version of our dear departed family or friend member. Yeah. I don't know. I don't know how I feel about that. It'd be more possible with Sean than my dad. Cause we, we Sean professionally recorded in this.

[00:54:46] We have his voice for hours on a nice professional mic and pretty good camera video of him for hours. I mean, we've got at least 50, 60 hours. Here's what I would do. Yeah. I am okay with it. I would ask Lisa and the daughters. Oh yeah. No, I wouldn't do it without any buy-in from the family. I would just say we have the ability to create something. We don't have to use it for ourselves.

[00:55:14] We could create a video for y'all that, that basically would take his brain and have him saying, thank you. I love you all. I'm going to miss you guys. Don't worry about me. I had a great life, you know, sort of setting their minds at ease might make his passing a little bit more easy. I think, or maybe worse, or it could horribly backfire.

[00:55:44] Right. That's the thing. That's why I don't, I don't want to, I don't think I want to get in. See, for me though, if someone did that of my dad, I would, want to see it. I will, I might sob uncontrollably. Well, but I think it would be cool. Cause I would, I would. But is that because it's your dad who your dad passed away at an older age, an older age, a little bit more in the accepted time that we start to think people are, are, are going to leave us. Correct.

[00:56:14] Where somebody like Sean was not nowhere near it. That's where I think maybe the deciding point is. Yeah. I don't know if I, okay. That being said, Oh gosh, I don't want to say this out loud. Okay. Well, don't, don't, I mean, if it's someone close to me, that's not my dad. Yeah. That passed away. Yeah. That's not Sean either. Right. I mean, very close to me. Yeah. And that person were to go, I don't know if I'd want to see it. Yeah. See, yeah. So I'm now I'm looking at it through their lens. I think it's a difference. Okay.

[00:56:43] If my, if yes, if my, I think a parent, I could do it. If the parent passed away at a naturally old age, I think I'd be okay with that. Like seeing them in a digital recreation, anybody that's like spouse. Yeah. People, my age, whatever spouse, relatives. Couldn't do it. Yeah. Couldn't do it. Yeah. No, I don't, I, that would, that wouldn't work for me.

[00:57:13] Correct. Yeah. That's where I put myself just now. Like I, that would. Yeah. I couldn't do it. I'm trying to think of what would I, what there's a whole reason. There's a black mirror episode basically with that concept and it does not go well. That's right. How it ended. But I don't remember either. There's a lot of good black. Those episodes, they never, they never end good. So great. That's true. Something screwy happened. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Do you, okay. Yeah. Any final thoughts about it? No, no.

[00:57:43] I think I, I just, I'm yeah, I just don't think it was the right thing. We are against it. We are against it. Especially in a, it comes to court of law, AI, not allowed in a court of law. As of now,

[00:57:57] the only exception would be if Chris Pelkey or anybody in his situation had for some reason written something that he wrote in his own words before he passed away that they thought this was important for us to hear from Chris. Yes. And we want to do an AI version of his face reading it. I'm okay with that. Right. I think the issue is that we are hearing him say things that he did not actually write and say himself. Yeah.

[00:58:26] That was my question in the very beginning. I was like, did he write this before he died? He did not. Yeah. So there you go. That's the deciding point. Yeah. So that's why I say, I think it's in our best interest to go ahead and record or at least write things. We won't set on our behalf. Yeah. If something were, that's a good idea. It's not bad. I mean, because otherwise it's up to other people to write. Let's do it. Look, here's the thing. Yeah. I've had to give two eulogies basically. Yeah. My dad and Sean. I think I did a good job. I was there for your dad.

[00:58:56] And yes, you did a wonderful job, but I don't know if I trust anyone to do as good as me for my funeral. Right. You know what I mean? I, so, and I don't know if they will want to do it, but a lot of my friends and family don't like public speaking. So what if I wrote my own eulogy? Yeah. Had it capsulized and you don't want, you wouldn't need a, I would be straight me talking to the camera. Well, yeah, that's easy, but here's the problem.

[00:59:24] We are gathered here today because of me, but you don't know when you're going to pass away. That's true. You don't know how you're going to look. You don't know how when you pass away. Oh yeah. So my thinking is you go ahead and write it. You can write it now. Yeah. Yeah. But then let AI generate a visual of you based on whatever time period we want to remember John as. Okay. Yeah. So like if I say, you know what? John's no longer with us, but John wrote a really nice eulogy for himself that we're going to listen to.

[00:59:54] But I think we should see John in mid forties, 50 year old John. Yeah. I don't want to see 80 year old John. You will see at my peak. Right. Okay. I got you. I don't want to see 80 year old John reading his own eulogy. I want to see. Yeah. 45, 50 year old John. Yeah. Peak John. We have that. I mean, we have video. So that's what I'm saying. The words need to be coming from you. Yeah. Okay. I want to hear your eulogy for yourself. You talking to the audience.

[01:00:24] Hey guys, thanks for coming out to my funeral, you know, blah, blah, blah. Yeah. But I want to see you in your peak. Yes. Like the time you want to be represented. And what do we do? Just roll a, roll a TV out there. Yeah. Yeah. From the pool. Roll a cart. Roll it out there. It's like, oh, and here to deliver the eulogy. Here's John. Here's John. Because no one else is good as me. Right. I had to do this myself. That's actually hilarious. You're like,

[01:00:49] I don't trust anybody else to have delivered as meaningful as me. So I'm doing it. I'm talking to you, Jason. That's right. Yeah. I'm talking to you. What you do is you actually tell the people coordinating the funeral. It's like, okay, Jason, your brother needs to be sitting on this side. Yeah. Okay. Right. And then I need this person sitting over here so that when you look at the, when you're watching the camera, it's like you say, I'm talking to you, Jason, and you're looking in the left corner. It's like going to match up perfectly. That's awesome. That's going to freak people out.

[01:01:18] We have to do that. Actually. I mean, I don't mind doing it. I'm a comedian. I will do this and it will be funny. All right. And, and emotional. Yeah. It's sad. Oh, it would be, it would be so all of the emotions, but, but funny too. And that's the end goal for me. Well, I mean, I'm going to say exactly what we want to say. Make sure it's said, make sure it stayed the way we want it to said. Yeah. Yeah. So we record, we can record our, I still say you have AI generated for you.

[01:01:48] Yes. But it's based on the words you wrote already. And by the way, the words I write will be helped by chat GPG as well. absolutely. And you know, the thing is, John, I mean, just to get a little nerdy on it, it's like the reason why I think it's important that you get to choose what time period of John. Yes. Is the visual version we're seeing. It's kind of like in the star Wars movies when you have the ghost, uh, Jedi. Yes. Yes. All right. And they die,

[01:02:17] but we see them at a certain point in their life. Okay. Yeah. Like, Oh yeah. I know what you're saying. Anakin Skywalker. Yeah. Darth Vader peak. And the original return of the Jedi, when it came out before we had ever met a young Anakin, it was the old guys who played Darth Vader. But then when they reedited it and redid it, they put in Anakin Skywalker as like a 20 something year old guy, the one we've been seeing in the new movies. So they changed it.

[01:02:44] That's how they want ghost Jedi to be seen is it's whatever version of the ghost Jedi you want to see. Yes. So that's, that's why I'm saying whatever version of John is delivering the eulogy, it ought to be your choice. Yes. What peak level of John should be the ones performing the eulogy. Agreed. And we say, AI take all the footage of John from this time period in his life and recreate him in a digital version, reading his eulogy to the audience. Yeah. Now I'm just trying to think of what, what,

[01:03:14] what you were, I know physically my peak was 23, but I didn't have a beard yet, but you weren't also, but I wasn't John fully established as yourself. So to establish me, it's really me without a beard, but I like having the beard. It's like early forties. Yeah. If you want to look at last comic standing, that was 2017. is the last comic standing. Would that be, would that be the time you'd like to pull out his peak, John? Well, because I had done the commercials, but,

[01:03:43] and I'd done some comedy central stuff. People kind of knew the face, but didn't know the name until last comic standing. Okay. So that would have been season five, 2007, 2007. Yeah. So can I go ahead and mark this down? Yeah. Cause again, I'm prepping all this just in case. Okay. Just in case something. Yeah. I'm just, I'm just trying to be careful. I'm trying to be preventive. I got you. Yeah. Thank you. If something were to happen, I will make sure this all gets pulled off. Yeah. Okay. I like it. I'd like for you to do the same for me. Okay. Okay.

[01:04:12] That's our pact right now is that if something were to happen to us, what's your peak year? 12. It's kind of a downhill from there. I mean, that's kind of, no, I take that back. Actually, my peak year was, you were good looking at high school. It's probably mid twenties. Yeah. I mean, if I could, if I could, if I could have mid twenties, Alan kind of present my eulogy, I'd be totally down with that. Mid twenties, Alan, and I'm going to say mid thirties, John. Okay. Yeah. Somewhere around there. Yeah.

[01:04:41] I think that would be great. So we just, you know, we just need to write our own eulogies in advance. Well, you know, it's funny. You bring up, I like the return of the Jedi stuff. I didn't think about that, but you're right. They changed it. I feel bad for the old man though. Right. Me too. It's like, that was the age he died. That was the time he died. That's the way we should see them. What he looked like as a kid. That's the way we should see the Jedi is at the time they died. But then they went back and edit it. It's like, no, no, no. Forget the old guy. Yeah.

[01:05:11] Let's remember him as the young 20 something hot looking guy that we saw. The argument is it's the same person, just at a different age. Right. But I'm saying in terms of an actor. Oh yeah. Yeah. He's out of residual check. He got screwed over. So bad. That sucks. It's not. Yeah. Because really, and the only time that actor who played the old Darth Vader, the actual, the only time we ever saw him helmet off and he's all scarred and like wearing tons of makeup and you can't recognize him who he is. So the one moment we get to see him, yeah,

[01:05:41] all his glory and like perfect health as a dead guy, as a ghost, and like, you see that shot of him and Yoda and somebody else. Oh, Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan. All standing there together. And Luke sees him at the end of return of the Jedi. And it's like, Oh yeah, that's how I remember those guys now. And then it's like, no, now here's a problem. Luke never saw his father at the age that Anakin Skywalker was in the edited version of the film.

[01:06:10] Who's this guy? who is that guy? Where's my dad? Right. Yeah. Wait, who's this kid? Yeah. Also, did they do that with Obi-Wan? Cause there's an old Obi-Wan and there's the, the young, did they replace them out with, uh, even McGregor. Right. I don't think he did. So that sucks. Hmm. Yeah. So not only did the old actor who played Darth Vader get screwed out of residuals, they killed him again, basically. But then you're confusing the hell out of Luke.

[01:06:39] Cause Luke is now seeing a ghost of somebody. He does not know. He's like, all right, this guy looks maybe familiar. Like, am I related to him somehow? I don't know. And he, by the way, he doesn't even look anything like the older guy. He doesn't. He doesn't. I never liked that choice. That was a really bad. But why didn't they do it with a Obi-Wan? And maybe they did. I'm trying to recall. Okay. I think I was so jarred by seeing, uh, it's Hayden Christensen who played. I think seeing him was so jarring for me. I'm like, yeah,

[01:07:09] I didn't pay attention to what Obi-Wan looked like. Well, that's interesting. I need to go back and look at that. Well, I like that you made that comparison and I'm going to go look it up. And to add to it, I want to, I want to tell you this. I did that with my dad's obituary. For example, this is the picture I chose of my dad. Oh yeah. Good. Peak David Reap. Peak David Reap. What was he probably? Oh yeah. Good looking. Good looking guy. Must. It looked like Robert Redford. He, he does. Yeah, he does.

[01:07:38] He went with that for a while. That's what I think obituaries ought to be. It's like we, your loved ones ought to say, you're like, what, what's, what's peak. This is the best photo I could find of my dad. That's what we're, and that's what you do. And because I'm funny and he's funny and I wanted him to be peak David Reap. Yes. I also made him sound smart and I did use chat GPT for his obituary. And I said, write an obituary about David William Ray, blah, blah, blah,

[01:08:07] in the style of a, uh, 1930s, uh, Southern poet or something like that. Wow. I'm gonna read it to you. Okay. All right. And I got compliments on this and I never fessed up to it. It's just, just between me, you only going to hear AI listeners are going to know. All right. You ready? This is great. I'm ready. Have we done an hour? Um, I don't know. I don't know. Uh, one Oh nine. All right. So let's end it. Let's end it with this. We'll end it with this. All right. David William reaps obituary.

[01:08:36] Here we go. It is with a somber and reflective heart that we bid adieu to a man of remarkable character, David William rape on the tranquil, morning of August the 22nd in the sanctuary of his dreams. Wow. He quietly embarked on his final journey at the age of 78. Damn. This is good. That's good. That is so good. That first sentence out the gate, people like right away. People like you. I'm like water work. Definitely.

[01:09:05] Cradled by the gentle embrace of Carolina caring hospice. He did a devoted husband and exceptional father and grandfather, a steadfast Christian, a former deacon and a beacon of heroism within the community. David's legacy will eternally illuminate the paths. He graced. Isn't that awesome? No, it's really good. So it's really good. I did that. Everything we're saying, I already did.

[01:09:31] I think I'm going to mandate that AI needs to be in charge of writing my obituary. I'm just going to say, look, I, so you can do it now. I've got people in my family that are really good writers. I'm like, no offense. I got this. I got this. I need, I need this guy to take care of it for me. Yeah. Cause I mean, nobody's, nobody's that good. Nobody's that good. Right. So let's do that. Maybe next episode we'll come in here with obituaries that we had. Oh, chat GPT, right for the other person.

[01:10:01] Oh, okay. So I can, I will write yours using chat GPT and you will use right mine using chat GPT in whatever style you choose. Okay. So you don't have to say in the style of John Reed because in the style of Edgar Allen's. I can pick a style that I think would be appropriate for reading your obituary. Okay. And vice versa. Chat GPT. We're going to write each other's obituary. Now. Yeah. The obituaries never mentioned specifically how people die if they die, like in an accident or something. You can. So we kind of keep it broad.

[01:10:31] Oh, we don't have to. Let's not do that. I was saying he's about how great we were. Okay. All right. Yeah. Now granted, now you feel to make up how it is. I'm still planning on doing some pretty cool things between now and whenever I pass away to just know whatever obituary you write for me won't be complete. It's like, Oh, now you're trying to influence my obituary of you. Maybe. Okay. So, and I mean, and you've got, you've got big things ahead too. So it was just, this is a obituary if we were to pass away like in the next year. Okay. Yeah.

[01:10:59] But it'll need to be updated over time. Oh yeah. This is not the official. Okay. This is not the official. This is like, if we died this week, if it's really good, I'm fine with it being my official. You can tweak it. Yeah. Just a little bit. Okay. Good. All right, everybody. Thank you all for listening to this episode. Sorry we took last week off, but I know you understand. Don't forget to rate, review, subscribe, and share. Leave us a comment on the YouTube channel or anywhere for that matter. Sure.

[01:11:29] And we will read them next week. Didn't get to it this week. I think because we took last week off, but you understand. We love you. Thanks for listening. For Alan Jackson and Moose, I'm John Reap saying goodbye. Bye. You demand John Reap. You've been listening to The Mesh, an online media network of shows and programs ranging from business to arts, sports to entertainment,

[01:11:58] music to community. All programs are available on the website as well as through iTunes and YouTube. Check us out online at themesh.tv. Discover other network shows and give us feedback on what you just heard.