An Eerie Historical Deepfake Imagines Nixon Telling the World the Moon Landing Failed
A team of scientists used A.I. to create a convincing facsimile of a historical speech that never happened, and put the threat of fake information front and center
Published in
6 min readDec 10, 2019
Even from a distance, you recognize the voice: pugnacious, portentous, with that famous bulldog growl. It’s Nixon, without a doubt. Then you see the TV screen showing the most reviled president of the 20th century at his desk in the Oval Office, flanked by flags, giving an address to the nation.
But it isn’t quite right; Nixon seems to be saying something about dead astronauts. “These brave men, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, know that there is no hope for their recovery,” he intones gravely. “But they also know that there is hope for mankind in their sacrifice.” Double take doesn’t quite do it: even for Tricky Dicky, this is a turn-up for the books.
