The Upside of Deep Fakes and How They Could Be Better Than You Think

Every week seems like a rough week for Mark Zuckerberg. And he probably deserves it. The cover story in BusinessWeek was all about how Zuckerberg’s no-compromise view of free-speech-no-matter-what is enabling more hatred, racism and rage in the world. What if Zuck had an awakening?

An independent artist named Stephanie Lepp has imagined that for him and other notable figures through a series of videos collectively called Deep Reckonings. The videos use deep fake technology to create a synthetic video that shows public figures making confessions they would otherwise never make, with the ultimate ambition of getting them (and us) to say “that is the me I want to be.”

While the technology of this narrative art project is impressive, the most potent element is the writing. Lepp creates a script for each reckoning that avoids judgement or snark and instead imagines what it might truly be like to watch a public figure “learn, change, redeem [themselves], and ultimately grow ... in public.” Sadly, seeing this happen in reality would require a level of self-awareness and courage that most of these public figures lack.