Through an overwhelming smorgasbord of archival footage, viral videos, documentary excerpts, and one immersive work, curators Barbara Miller and Joshua Glick posit that the antidote to misinformation is context. The show guides visitors through substantial evidence with which they can think more critically about what informs their beliefs. The entry room alone contains nine flickering artifacts in a chronology of "deepfakes," while a parallel hallway is lined with contemporary examples. A deepfake is a video in which real footage has been convincingly manipulated, sometimes with insidious ideological aims. John Lennon can advertise a podcast.

A recent article outlines the growing danger of deepfakes and their increased realism, due to machine learning and artificial intelligence. MIT's Center for Advanced Virtuality has created a technologically advanced storytelling project that has manipulated archived footage of President Richard Nixon's 1969 speech during the Apollo 11 lunar landing. The goal of the video is to demonstrate the convincing deepfake technology and warn the public of the burgeoning threat of media misinformation. While the manipulation of photography has existed since the 19th century, becoming affluent during the era of motion pictures, the current state of deepfakes has become alarmingly realistic. Beginning in the late 90's, computer scientists began experimenting with facial reanimation.

A recent article outlines the growing danger of deepfakes and their increased realism, due to machine learning and artificial intelligence.

Fox News Flash top headlines are here. Check out what's clicking on Foxnews.com. Scientists at MIT have digitally manipulated video and audio to create a creepy deepfake of President Nixon "delivering" a speech that would have been used in the event of an Apollo 11 disaster. Written in 1969, the contingency speech was to be used if NASA astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were unable to return from the moon. The video is part of a project entitled "In Event of Moon Disaster" that aims to highlight the dangers of deepfakes, which use artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to create false, but realistic-looking clips.

Through these sophisticated AI and machine learning technologies, the seven-minute film shows how thoroughly convincing deepfakes can be.

Can you recognize a digitally manipulated video when you see one? It's harder than most people realize. As the technology to produce realistic "deepfakes" becomes more easily available, distinguishing fact from fiction will only get more challenging. A new digital storytelling project from MIT's Center for Advanced Virtuality aims to educate the public about the world of deepfakes with "In Event of Moon Disaster." This provocative website showcases a "complete" deepfake (manipulated audio and video) of U.S. President Richard M. Nixon delivering the real contingency speech written in 1969 for a scenario in which the Apollo 11 crew were unable to return from the moon.

These samples are taken from the full Nixon deepfake speech delivery that is part of the "In Event of Moon Disaster" project. The installation version of "In Event of Moon Disaster" premiered on 22nd November, 2019 at the International Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) as part of the IDFA DocLab program. The entire speech is available there currently and will be shared online as part of the larger art/education project in Spring 2020. Please visit https://moondisaster.org for more info.