In a sobering example of the potential for ‘deepfake’ technology to create alternate realities beyond the cinematic sphere, in 2018, BuzzFeed and director Jordan Peele (Get Out, Us) voiced a cautionary PSA in which former U.S. president Barack Obama appears to offer contentious opinions on the history of the Black Panthers and President Trump. Peele’s production company created the clip using a combination of old and new technology: Adobe After Effects and the AI face-swapping tool, FakeApp. Peele’s intention was to draw attention to the capacity for AI to generate photorealistic fake videos that could be mis-used to spread disinformation. The clip ends by urging viewers to critically assess what they see on the internet and to ‘rely on trusted news sources’ to avert the potential dystopia that awaits us in a post-truth era of fake news.
Content notification
Our collection comprises over 40,000 moving image works, acquired and catalogued between the 1940s and early 2000s. As a result, some items may reflect outdated, offensive and possibly harmful views and opinions. ACMI is working to identify and redress such usages.
Learn more about our collection and our collection policy here. If you come across harmful content on our website that you would like to report, let us know.
Collection
In ACMI's collection
Collection metadata
ACMI Identifier
xos-60888