Maybe this deepfake video, by placing Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos in the shoes of an alien overlord bent on enslaving (some of) humanity, is offering up some sort of social commentary. Or maybe it just looks cool having Bezos face off against Tesla/SpaceX head Elon Musk. The roles are oddly appropriate, though — Bezos as a benevolent (but still tyrannical) alien ruler and Musk as Captain of the Enterprise. Given their current jobs, etc, etc.
Fake Trek
The above deepfake video uses scenes from the original Star Trek series pilot, which has Enterprise Captain Christopher Pike (Elon Musk) utterly horrify a Talusian alien (Jeff Bezos) intent on enslaving Pike to rebuild its civilisation. You’ve either seen the episode itself, or the many riffs on it (many of ’em by way of Matt Groening, we believe).
We’re less concerned with the content of the video than we are with the video tech. Bezos in particular is quite convincing as an alien with an oversized head, so much so that we’ll be expecting this odd cadence next time we see video of him speaking. Musk’s rendering is a little less so, with the transplanted face not quite matching the forehead shine of the original actor (Jeffrey Hunter). Still, it’s quite the demonstration of the power of deepfake tech — and not the first we’ve seen this week.
Source: The Fakening (YouTube)