“Our goal was to use the most advanced artificial intelligence techniques available today to create the most believable result possible—and then point to it and say, ‘This is fake; here’s how we did it; and here’s why we did it”
co-director Halsey Burgund, fellow, MIT Open Documentary Lab
The present danger of deepfakes is clear in a demonstration video by MIT. POPULAR MECHANICS reports it shows former US President Richard Nixon announcing the 1969 moon landing killed all aboard Apollo 11. Two excerpts are below.
- The speech was written in 1969 to be used in case the Apollo 11 mission ended in tragedy. It was prepared by presidential speechwriter William Safire.
- The fake uses a deep learning algorithm, a voice actor, and ‘video dialogue replacement.’
- Clips from the video are featured in an art installation in Amsterdam called ‘In the Event of Moon Disaster.’
- The full video is expected to be online ‘in spring 2020.’