- A film from the
MIT Center for Advanced Virtuality uses deepfake technology to construct an alternate reality in which theApollo 11 mission ended in tragedy. - The film, titled "In The Event of Moon Disaster," uses the technology to create a video that appears to depict President Richard Nixon reciting a real contingency speech written by speechwriter William Safire.
- According to a news post from MIT, the project's official website launched today on the moon landing's 51st anniversary and endeavors to demonstrate the possibilities (and implications) of deepfake technology.
A video appearing to show President Richard Nixon addressing the nation to explain that the Apollo 11 mission had ended in tragedy, was actually fabricated with "deepfake" technology and published on the anniversary of the mission.
"Good evening, my fellow Americans," the then-president appears to say in the video. "Fate has ordained that the men who went to the moon to explore in peace will stay on the moon to rest in peace."
A digital storytelling project titled "In The Event of Moon Disaster" from the MIT Center for Advanced Virtuality uses deepfake technology to depict the national address — and tragedy — that never happened. Per Scientific American, media artists Francesca Panetta and Halsey Bergund at MIT worked with AI companies Canny AI and Respeecher to create a Nixon deepfake — and thus, a glimpse into an alternate reality in which the moon landing ended in tragedy rather than triumph.
Of course, in our timeline, the Apollo 11 mission was a success, and the moonwalkers — Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin — returned back to Earth safely. The speech in the video, however, was a very real contingency plan for if the astronauts were unable to return home. Penned by Nixon's speechwriter William Safire, the speech was titled "In The Event of Moon Disaster." Nixon, however, never actually had to deliver it.
While the "In The Event of Moon Disaster" film originally premiered in November 2019, the video circulated once again on the moon landing's 51st anniversary, after the project's official website launch, according to an MIT news post. The website combines a number of resources surrounding the film itself, including a new documentary from Scientific American's Jeffery DelViscio that presents the film to experts in the fields of AI, digital privacy, law, and human rights and gives context to the technology employed in its creation.
The video was made to illustrate the danger of deepfakes
Deepfakes are AI-manipulated videos that allow creators to make it look like subjects said or did something that never happened. Deepfakes gained notoriety after people started to use deepfake technology to paste celebrity faces into sex videos, but recently, the political and historical risks around deepfakes have gained more attention.
In 2018, a viral BuzzFeed video realistically faked a Barack Obama speech. In June 2019, a satirical deepfake of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg poked at Facebook's controversial data practices and advertised a digital art project called Spectre.
"In The Event of Moon Disaster" endeavors to explore the troublesome implications of deepfakes, and incite critical thought around deepfake technology.
- Read more:
- From porn to 'Game of Thrones': How deepfakes and realistic-looking fake videos hit it big
- President Nixon had this 'Moon Disaster' speech ready in case Apollo 11 astronauts died
- Buzz Aldrin peed his pants on the moon and 18 other wild facts you never learned about NASA's Apollo 11 mission
- Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon 50 years ago today. Here's what the astronaut remembers most about NASA's Apollo 11 mission.