Deepfake video shows Bezos, Musk in Star Trek episode

In this deepfake video of the Amazon CEO and the Tesla CEO, the two are seen playing roles in the pilot episode of the original Star Trek, “The Cage”, The Verge reported.

February 22, 2020 10:16 am | Updated November 28, 2021 11:25 am IST - San Francisco

Photo used for representational purpose only.

Photo used for representational purpose only.

A deepfake video that shows Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and Tesla CEO Elon Musk in a “Star Trek” episode has garnered a lot of interest online because it appears quite realistic.

The video posted by YouTube account The Fakening on Wednesday has been viewed by over 117,000 times so far on the Google-owned video-sharing platform.

“Deepfakes” are Artificial Intelligence-generated videos of real people doing and saying fictional things.

 

In this deepfake video of the Amazon CEO and the Tesla CEO, the two are seen playing roles in the pilot episode of the original Star Trek, “The Cage”, The Verge reported.

While Bezos is seen playing a Talosian alien, Musk plays Captain Christopher Pike.

Pike is captured by the Talosian aliens in a bid to enslave him. The Talosian aliens want to use Pike to breed humans that will be used to rebuild a destroyed society.

As Pike tries to escape throughout the episode, the Talosians eventually come to the conclusion that that humans’ attempt to escape captivity would not make them a good fit for that plan.

The video makes it seem like the conversation is only between the Talosian alien and Captain Pike.

That makes it difficult for people to follow the conversation, as in the original episode, a number of other characters played a critical role in the conversations.

Even though the scene appears confusing, many social media users found the deepfake quite impressive.

They particularly appreciated the character shown to be played by Bezos.

“You don’t even need to apply the deepfake to the Talosian. Bezos looks identical,” said one Twitter user.

“Musk looked a little off but the Bezos was perfect,” wrote another.

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