MIT Releases Eerie Apollo 11 Disaster 'Deepfake' Video

It has long been known that then-president Richard Nixon already had an alternate speech prepared in the event that the Apollo 11 mission should end in disaster. Now, thanks to technology, the world now has the chance to see Nixon give the speech that, thankfully, he never had to make in real life.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) experts at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) spent over a year creating alternate history by using advanced computer technology. By taking historical audio and video and running it through a computer, the MIT team was able to create an eerily convincing video of what history may have looked like if things had gone differently in July, 1969.

Part of the video was released a year ago but only now has the full 7-minute video been made available. For anyone wanting to see the 'speech,' it starts at around the 4:30 minute mark.

While the project owed its impetus to the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11, the MIT team had a more present goal in mind: educate the public about the concept of 'deepfakes,' defined as video forgeries designed to make people look like they're doing and/or saying something that they aren't.

While in years past restricted to special effects studios, video manipulation technology capable of making a convincing fake video of a real person is now well within reach of amateurs. With its video, MIT hopes to educate about what deepfakes are, how to spot them, show how they can be used/misused, and what is being done to combat their misuse.

And as if 2020 wasn't crazy enough already . . .

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