MIT creates disturbing ‘deepfake’ video of Nixon announcing Apollo 11 disaster

A doctored video of President Richard Nixon delivering an Apollo 11 contingency speech is making its rounds online — with its creators hoping to underscore the disturbing power of “deepfake” videos.

It took Massachusetts Institute of Technology whizzes more than half a year to create the 7-minute video — which shows real NASA footage and then the president delivering a speech as though Apollo 11 had taken a tragic turn, Space.com reported.

“Fate has ordained that the men who went to the moon to explore in peace will stay on the moon to rest in peace,” Nixon says in the speech, written by speechwriter William Safire, referring to astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin.

In reality, Armstrong and Aldrin safely landed on the moon on July 20, 1969, and made it back home to Earth, along with crewmate Michael Collins.

The project, called “In Event of Moon Disaster” and hatched by experts with MIT’s Center for Advanced Virtuality, was meant to prove the dangerous influence “deepfake” videos can have.

“In Event of Moon Disaster is an immersive art project inviting you into an alternative history, asking us all to consider how new technologies can bend, redirect and obfuscate the truth around us,” the creators wrote on the project’s website.

“By creating this alternative history the project explores the influence and pervasiveness of misinformation and deepfake technologies in our contemporary society.”

The experts said artificial intelligence technology called “deep-learning” was used to mimic Nixon’s voice and facial movements. The contingency speech — which is stored in the National Archives — was read aloud by a speech actor.

“In Event of Moon Disaster” made its debut last year as an art installation and has gone on to win several awards.