‘Brown v. Board of Education Revisited’ uses Northwestern artificial intelligence technology to simulate Supreme Court case

CHICAGO (WLS) — Words that changed America reach out through history.

Friday is the 70th anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education, ending legally enforced racial segregation in public schools.

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There is no audio recording of that case, but thanks to a partnership between the Knight Lab at Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism, “Spooler.FM” and “Oyez,” history is coming to life.

“Brown v. Board of Education Revisited” uses artificial intelligence technology and the original transcripts to simulate the voices of key figures in the case.

The founder of Oyez and Northwestern University professor emeritus Jerry Goldman, as well as James Boggs, the CEO of Spooler, joined ABC7 Friday to talk about the project.

It allows listeners to hear a recreation of the voice of famous NAACP attorney Thurgood Marshall.

The creators spoke about how AI was used to transform the voice of an actor, recreating a particularly powerful moment in the case: Thurgood Marshall dismissing arguments for segregation.

The project can be found on their website.