Imagine a Deepfake

            There have been a lot of concerns of late about the dangers of deepfakes, but at least one company is hoping to share a different message. Canny AI, a startup based in Tel Aviv, released a deepfake video earlier this year that is not trying to deceive anyone.

            The video demonstrates an extraordinary rendition of “Imagine,” the single written by John Lennon and Yoko Ono.  The famous song offers a message of peace and humanity, encouraging listeners to envision a world without conflict.

            So, it’s fitting that the video features a mashup of modern-day world leaders, and possible adversaries, including Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, and Kim Jong-Un. Thanks to deep learning and artificial intelligence, the company was able to portray the leaders realistically lip-synching the song.

            In an interview with fxguide, co-founder Omer Ben-Ami said, “There’s a lot of hype on [deepfakes], around the fake news with this technology and we wanted to do something with a strong unifying message, to show some positive uses for this technology.”

            Check it out and “imagine” they’re really singing it.