In July of 1969, humans went to the Moon, walked on the Moon, blasted off from the Moon, and came back home to Earth. But what if they hadn’t; what if disaster had struck?

Nixon’s speechwriter, William Safire, had prepared a speech for the president to read in the event of such an awful occurrence. In this short film, In Event of Moon Disaster, Nixon finally reads that speech, thanks to impressive (and unsettlingly real-looking) deepfake video/AI technology.

You can see the film as it was shown to audiences here. And below is a video of the screening event which includes the full film and a Q&A session with the creators.

Last November, Rob Beschizza wrote on Boing Boing:

Making people do things they didn’t is much harder than the usual generative fare: the voice, physical consistency, the emotions, and the historical details all conspire to subvert the “easy” part of making someone’s chops move. A lie is harder than a joke, which is why lies are posed as jokes. The achieved result, though, is magical and disquieting — look how they make Nixon choke up! And a warning.

I can’t believe this never blipped my radar until now. Thanks to my pal Alberto Gaitán for bringing it to my attention.