Queen “Deepfake” offers an alternative Christmas speech in warning about misinformation

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The true British monarch traditionally delivers a Christmas Day speech issued around the world.
But his speech on Friday at 3pm was followed by a digitally created fake Queen, broadcast on channel 4 and voiced by an actor, warning viewers to ask themselves “if what we see and hear is always the that seems “.

The broadcaster said the video was supposed to offer “a blatant warning about advanced technology that allows for the proliferation of misinformation and fake news in a digital age.”

Channel 4 annually accompanies the Queen’s traditional speech with an “alternative Christmas message”. This message has been issued since 1993.

It has long been controversial. Among those prior to delivering the alternative speech is Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the former president of Iran. Other notable guests are American whistleblower Edward Snowden, Jesse Jackson and the children who survived the 2017 Grenfell Tower fire.

But the 2020 iteration is quite different.

This year Channel 4 hired the VFX Framestore studio to create a fake Queen Elizabeth, who spoke candidly about personal matters.

The video was manipulated using artificial intelligence technology.

The deep queen talks about the move of Prince Harry and Meghan to North America, saying, “There are few things more harmful than someone telling you that they prefer the company of Canadians.”

The fake queen also performed a Tik Tok dance routine.

Queen Elizabeth says that

“Deepfake technology is the terrifying new frontier in the battle between misinformation and truth,” Channel 4 program director Ian Katz said in a statement.

“This year’s alternative Christmas speech, apparently delivered by one of the nation’s most familiar and trusted figures, is a powerful reminder that we can no longer trust in our own eyes.”

But Sam Gregory, program director at WITNESS, a group that trains activists around the world to use video safely, warned of exaggerating the threat of deepfake technology.

“Deepfakes advertises over (currently) the hypothetical threats of perfect political falsifications … about real threats,” Gregory tweeted on Dec. 24 in reaction to the news of the alternative speech.

In her true Christmas message, the Queen congratulated the front-line workers for their efforts during the pandemic and offered condolences to the families who were unable to celebrate together due to coronavirus-related restrictions.

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