By Tim Binnall
In an effort to raise awareness about the dangers surrounding deepfake videos, experts from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have released a chilling creation which depicts President Nixon announcing that the Apollo 11 mission had turned tragic. The unsettling piece of faux footage was reportedly produced over the course of six months by artificial intelligence researchers at MIT who used advanced video editing software and a voice actor to create the creepy scene.
Dubbed 'In Event of Moon Disaster' after the actual contingency speech which had been written for Nixon prior to the Apollo 11 mission, the chilling video appears to show the president mournfully tell the American people that Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin had perished in their pursuit of the historic landing. "Fate has ordained that the men who went to the moon to explore in peace will stay on the moon to rest in peace," he declares in the frighteningly realistic video.
Initially unveiled last November at an art event, MIT's Center for Advanced Virtuality posted the creation online for the public on Monday in commemoration of the 51st anniversary of the Apollo landing. The group hopes that the video will enlighten people as to just how well-crafted and believable these so-called 'deepfake' videos can be, especially since it is almost certain the quality of such productions will only improve as technology advances.