Netflix has come under fire for using generative AI to reproduce the voice of Gabby Petito, the 22-year-old social media influencer who, according to the FBI, was murdered by her fiancé Brian Laundrie in August 2021.

In the opening credits of the company's true crime documentary, "American Murder: Gabby Petito," which premiered its first episode on Monday, a notice reveals that Petito's "journal entries and text messages are brought to life in this series in her own voice, using voice recreation technology."

It's an eerie artistic choice, even for the fraught true crime genre, that had audiences startled, with one user calling it "deeply unsettling use of AI."

"Watching the Gabby Petito doc, absolutely invested... until the part it started using AI to make HER read out her texts and journal entries," another user wrote. "That is absolutely NOT okay. She’s a murder victim. You are violating her again."

Petito's parents appear to have been an integral part of Netflix's efforts to bring her voice back to life.

"We had so much material from her parents that we were able to get," filmmaker and producer Michael Gasparro told Us Weekly. "All of her journals since she was young and there was so much of her writing."

"At the end of the day, we wanted to tell the story as much through Gabby as possible," he added. "It’s her story."

But to many, using AI to synthesize the voice of a deceased person — particularly without consent — was a step too far.

"I understand they had permission from the parents, but that doesn’t make it feel any better," one X-formerly-Twitter user wrote. "This woman had her voice taken from her, so to recreate it with a poor substitute — a monotone, lacking in emotion AI model — is an insult to her. There is absolutely no need for it."

"This world hates women so much," another user tweeted.

"It can't predict what her intonation would have been and it's just gross to use it imo... at the very least I hope they got consent from her family," one Redditor wrote. "I just don't like the precedent it sets for future documentaries either."

It's not the first time we've come across the use of generative AI in a Netflix true crime documentary. Last year, Futurism discovered what strongly appeared to be AI-generated or -manipulated images in a documentary about a murder-for-hire plot involving a woman named Jennifer Pan, who's currently serving time in prison.

Images used to describe her "very genuine" personality bore all the hallmarks of generative AI, like misaligned facial features and morphed fingers.

Earlier this month, 404 Media also discovered an entire YouTube channel publishing a firehose of "true crime" AI slop that was entirely made up.

Is Netflix's latest use of AI deeply distasteful and exploitative — or an accurate rendition of the late influencer's voice?

Given how commonplace the tech has become, it's unlikely the last time we'll see it being used in documentaries.

The filmmakers behind "American Murder: Gabby Petito," for their part, don't think they've done her a disservice.

"In all of our docs, we try to go for the source and the people closest to either the victims who are not alive or the people themselves who have experienced this," producer Julia Willoughby Nason told Us Weekly. "That’s really where we start in terms of sifting through all the data and information that comes with these huge stories."

More on true crime AI: "True Crime" YouTube Channel Busted as Pure, Made-Up AI Slop


Share This Article