Across Mexico, more than 100,000 people have disappeared due to state and cartel violence. One group is using deepfakes of the missing to push the government to find them.
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The Lede
Across Mexico, more than 100,000 people have disappeared due to state and cartel violence, human and sex trafficking and forced labor. The lack of political will and high levels of corruption have forced thousands of families to lead the search for their missing loved ones with the few resources they have at their disposal. Using AI technology to bring images of missing people to life, families of disappeared people hope to challenge the government efforts to diminish the issue.
Key Details
- As a presidential election looms, the government has been under scrutiny after it announced a new "census" of the missing that reduced the official count. Families accuse the government of "disappearing the disappeared."
- AI models along with a picture of the missing person generates videos of them speaking, seeking to put a face to the statistics and show that the disappearance of people is systematic.
- The videos have had a profound emotional impact on families.
