Unfinished Legacies: AI campaign breathes new life into those lost to fentanyl

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) - “One Pill Can Kill” and “Fentanyl is Forever”, are just some of the campaigns targeting the fentanyl epidemic plaguing the U.S.

Over the last five years, Kansas City saw more than a 1,000% increase in fentanyl deaths. That’s why the city teamed up with the United Way for a unique campaign called Unfinished Legacies.

The campaign, Unfinished Legacies uses artificial intelligence to bring back the voices silenced by fentanyl. Juanita Coburn’s son Jordan was one of those voices. “He was funny, a good son, brother, father,” said Juanita. “Jordan was basically the heart of the family.”

At 23 years old, Jordan died from a fentanyl overdose.

“I received a call from his girlfriend,” said Juanita. “She told me he was on the floor and he was cold.” His mother said Jordan didn’t even know he took the drug.

“He was with his friends, they gave him a pill and it was laced with Fentanyl,” said Juanita. “We just decided we don’t want it to happen to anyone else.”

On the small computer screen, Juanita watches a video with KCTV5 Anchor Sharon Chen.

“Still can’t believe I’m dead,” said Jordan.

It is Jordan’s face and voice, recreated by artificial intelligence. This is Unfinished Legacies, the new anti-fentanyl campaign from Kansas City.

“What I didn’t know, no one knew – was that there was Fentanyl in it,” said the image on the screen.

“We wanted to make work that actually broke through,” said Katie Horneday.

Horneday is Chief Creative Officer with Kansas City-based ad agency Barkley OKRP.

“We needed families who had lost children to fentanyl to tell their stories,” said Horneday.

With the help of AI, they told those stories, recreating last words that never were.

“We found as much footage as we could of them talking,” explained Horneday. “We filmed them delivering the message, and then we used AI to recreate their voice over the top of the voice of the actor, and then to superimpose their imagery that we got from videos and photos from the families on top of the actor.”

But, this type of technology has ethics experts asking questions.

“This is admittedly a deepfake, that’s what it portrays itself as,” said Dr. Joshua Mugg.

Mugg is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at Park University.

“This is the first time I’ve seen a city or government agency using deepfakes,” said Mugg.

He said the biggest concern with deepfakes is trust. Unfinished Legacies identifies itself as AI-generated and Mugg said that’s important.

“So before deepfakes portrayed themselves as something real, but it was outright lying,” said Mugg. “This isn’t that, but I do have this question of how this habituates us to seeing deepfakes and engaging with them in a way that was real.”

Mugg said this engagement rides a very thin line of ethics, maybe too thin.

“What is the way this might normalize deepfakes moving forward and is that something we want normalized?” asked Mugg. “I think these are cases where we have to be really cautious about what kind of ways we’re going to use these new tools.”

Mugg points out that even though this is being used for a good purpose, there is still a possibility for a fracture of trust.

“That was the thing that raised a flag for me the fact that is was a government agency doing this,” said Mugg. “I don’t watch that video too often, just sad,” said Juanita as she wiped away tears.

She told KCTV 5 she had her own reservations about Unfinished Legacies. “I didn’t know how it was going to turn out, so I didn’t know if I wanted to exploit him like that,” said Juanita.

But, she said once she saw it, she immediately knew.

“We all cried, it was like so real, but it was like – you know it’s not,” said Juanita. She knew this is how Jordan would want to finish his legacy.

“He always wanted the spotlight so he’s probably like I got you,” said Juanita. “We don’t want this to happen to anyone else. I’m sure he’s probably looking down saying get them Momma.”

To further Jordan’s legacy, Juanita has plans to start her own podcast focused on educating and providing a voice to others impacted by fentanyl.

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