Families Hope New AI App Will Help Locate Argentina’s Stolen Children

Mariano Díaz Marocchi has a cousin he never met because he says his uncle was taken by the dictatorship in Argentina in 1976, along with his pregnant partner.

The couple was never seen again, but the family is hoping that their child could still be found.

They’re using an app called MidJourney to produce a photo of what that cousin could look like today.

"I could easily be this person's brother, considering his facial features. I may be the least similar to him, and yet I recognize myself if I shave,” Marocchi told APTN.

Reports say 500 babies were taken between 1976 and 1983 and given to soldiers and families who sympathized with the government.

The parents of the children are all presumed dead.

Photos created on the app are then uploaded to an Instagram account, where the hope is someone will see a resemblance to someone they know.

Santiago Barros, a publicist for the app, says, “If the application helps someone who has doubts and sees himself similar to a photo in the Instagram account, it has already met its goal.”

But some activists who are working to locate the children question the accuracy of AI-generated photos.

They say DNA testing is the only way for someone to learn if they are one of the stolen children.   

But families of the missing say any tool to help reunite them is worth a shot.

“Forty-seven years later, today, we are still deeply moved by these situations, and healing will require memory, truth, and justice,” Marocchi said. “And what the AI photos of missing babies do is bring to mind the people we are looking for and who we will continue to look for all our lives."

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