[Sci-tech-public] "In Event of Moon Disaster" Screening - Deep Fakes and AI

[Deborah Douglas]

Friends,

Next week the MIT Museum will be presenting a program on “Deep Fakes” and AI. This video was originally released in Amsterdam last fall by the MIT Center for Advanced Virtuality.  You may have seen clips or other articles  including the promise of a spring release.  The pandemic delayed that release until now.  Next week is an opportunity to both screen the video and participate in Q&A.


Debbie Douglas



At In Event of Moon Disaster - Live Screening and Q&A, the live stream of the art installation  short, seven minute film of a speech by Richard Nixon he never actually made. Using deep fake techniques“In Event of Moon Disaster” will empower and educate the public on how to discern reality from deepfakes on their own. The piece is designed by a collaborative of artists and computer scientists and directed by Francesca Panetta along with co-director Halsey Burgund.

In “In Event of Moon Disaster,” the team has reimagined the story of the moon landing. In a telecast, President Nixon reads a contingency speech written for him by his speech writer, Bill Safire, “in event of moon disaster” which he was to read if the Apollo 11 astronauts had not been able to return to Earth. In this, faked news reel Richard Nixon is seen reading this speech from the Oval Office.

To recreate this moving elegy that never happened, the team used deep learning techniques such as synthetic speech working and video dialogue replacement techniques.  The resulting video is highly believable, highlighting the possibilities of deepfake technology today.

"Our goal was to use the most advanced artificial intelligence techniques available today to create the most believable result possible — and then point to it and say, ‘This is fake; here’s how we did it; and here’s why we did it,’” says Halsey Burgund.

Program:

In Event of Moon Disaster – Live Screening and Q&A

Date:

July 20, 2020

Time:

12 ET (9 PT, 17 BST)

Youtube link:

https://youtu.be/ur8wl20nt9Y

Directors:

Francesca Panetta & Halsey Burgund

Hosts:

Loren Hammonds, Senior Programmer, Tribeca Film Festival

Brought to you by:

Mozilla, the MIT Center for Advanced Virtuality, & the MIT Museum




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• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •







Deborah G. Douglas, PhD • Director of Collections and Curator of Science and Technology, MIT Museum; Research Associate, Program in Science, Technology, and Society • Room N51-209 • 265 Massachusetts Avenue • Cambridge, MA 02139-4307 • ddouglas at mit.edu<mailto:ddouglas at mit.edu> • 617-253-1766 telephone • 617-253-8994 facsimile • http://mitmuseum.mit.edu<http://mitmuseum.mit.edu/> • she/her/hers





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