Why use the moon landing’s contingency speech?
The purpose of our project is to educate the public and raise awareness about deepfake technology, so when deciding on a video to deepfake, we wanted to be sure to pick an event that most people worldwide are aware of and believe happened. If the event was less well-known, then our audience might have a harder time distinguishing what parts of the project are fact and which parts play into the “alternate timeline”. By presenting a version of the moon landing that clearly did not happen, it is obvious to the audience that Nixon delivering the contingency speech is a deepfake. Even knowing how the moon landing went in reality, though, the way the alternative history is presented makes the deepfake disturbingly believable. In this way, we invite the audience into our alternate reality to explore their own susceptibility - even knowing the moon landing was successful, how does the physical and video context surrounding the deepfake influence you? Might an event you know less about be even more convincing with the right context?
How is deepfake itself connected to the moon landing?
With our project, we demonstrate how powerful deepfake technology is becoming, and remind the audience that we as a society are once again on the precipice of a great technological accomplishment or disaster. We are as eager as the world was on that day in July 1969, watching in wonder with the knowledge that we are witnessing something new, powerful, and that will forever change us. As the world anxiously watched the Apollo 11 mission, we as a society are anxiously watching the development of deepfake technology. Even committed as we are to using artificial intelligence for truth, learning, and a better understanding of ourselves, we can just as easily slip into using deepfakes to harm, to undermine democracy, and diminish the trust in our own experiences. We hope this project has contributed to the former, a “mission success” scenario of history, and that we’ve provided enough transparency into our process to demystify the phenomenon of deepfakes and empower people to regard them critically. 2019 saw the 50th anniversary of the successful moon landing, and it is everyone’s mission that in another 50 years, we can look back with pride on this event too, a milestone of what humanity can accomplish.