
They could stage well-sourced debates between historical figures from different eras. Students could research and write historically informed scripts, which they then use to animate different historical figures. Some researchers believe that historians will ultimately find deepfakes to be useful, even benevolent.Īs a teacher, I can see how historians might use apps like Deep Nostalgia to great effect. A related website includes teaching resources that helps viewers learn more about media literacy.

For example, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology produced an award-winning short film in 2019 called “ In Event of Moon Disaster,” which featured a deepfake version of President Nixon seated at his desk, solemnly informing the nation that the Apollo 11 astronauts had perished on the moon. Others have leveraged deepfakes to explore alternate histories. Legal experts Danielle Citron and Robert Chesney have heralded their pedagogical potential, insisting that deepfakes might liven up otherwise boring history lectures. Some researchers believe that historians will ultimately find deepfakes to be useful, even benevolent. It is not yet clear how deepfakes will influence the historical discipline, but opinions run the gamut. Perhaps you’ve seen the video that shows Bill Hader morphing into Arnold Schwarzenegger, or the one that places Will Smith’s face on Cardi B’s body. In the years since, several other deepfakes have also gone viral. Acting as an invisible marionette, Peele used the Obama avatar to caution viewers about the potential dangers of deepfakes. The video appeared to show Barack Obama saying, “Donald Trump is a total and complete dipshit.” In fact, the video was an effective PSA from director Jordan Peele about the dangers of deepfakes. The first deepfake to gain widespread attention was released in 2018. The living portraits produced by Deep Nostalgia are relatively shoddy, and thus qualify as “ cheapfakes,” but the most advanced deepfakes are difficult if not impossible to detect with the naked eye. Some videos seamlessly transplant one person’s face onto another person’s body, while others create an entire person from scratch. Generally speaking, a deepfake is a video that has been altered using machine-learning algorithms to show hyper-realistic people saying and doing things that they never said or did. Deep Nostalgiaĭeep Nostalgia is just one example of the “deepfakes” to be found online. The Cruise fakes are so accurate that many programmes designed to recognise manipulated media are unable to spot them.With Deep Nostalgia, users can animate images of loved ones, ancestors, and notable figures like Abraham Lincoln.
#My deep heritage nostalgia series
Last month, a new TikTok account named deeptomcruise racked up millions of views with a series of videos that are, it claims, deepfake versions of the actor talking to camera. Tom Cruise seems to be a particular subject of choice: in 2019, a video clip went viral of the comedian Bill Hader being morphed into the Hollywood star as he performed an impression on David Letterman’s show.
#My deep heritage nostalgia for free
Now, the same effect can be done for free with a mobile phone and apps such as Snapchat, or be given away for free as a promotion for a genealogy website.Īnd while the automatically produced videos of Deep Nostalgia are not likely to fool anyone into thinking they are real footage, more careful application of the same technology can be very hard to distinguish from reality. Three years ago, artificially producing a 15-second face-swap of Theresa May and Margaret Thatcher took the Guardian several hours on a powerful desktop computer. Sweet dreams! ) /g2J0LV5DAi- Jan Smeddinck 🇪🇺🌍 February 27, 2021 What ensued can only be summarised as #DeepNostalgia -> #DeeplyDisturbed. So I wanted to know how the recent #DeepLearning facial animations services do with busts and decided to give that botched Christiano Ronaldo statue a spin.
