Channel 4: A Post-Truth Christmas Message
By: Steven Allison
Tags: AI, Artificial Intelligence, Misinformation, Deepfakes, Fake News

Channel 4: A Post-Truth Christmas Message

One presumably knows that it is incredibly rare to see the Queen break into a basic smile, let alone a fancy tabletop jig. But thanks to technology, viewers got to witness both of these marvels on Christmas day.

Following the British monarch’s usual Christmas speech, shown on both the BBC and ITV, Channel 4 delivered its own festive message. There’s nothing strange about that, with the broadcaster airing an alternative every year. To date, we’ve seen it done by Edward Snowden, Danny Dyer, Doreen & Neville Lawrence (kids who survived the Grenfell Tower disaster), and Jesse Jackson — even The Simpsons once took a turn.

But this time, it was delivered with a controversial techy twist.

Known for pushing boundaries as far as possible, Channel 4 teamed up with visual effects studio Framestore to craft a deepfake Queen Elizabeth using artificial intelligence. Dressed in cobalt blue and pearls, sitting in Buckingham Palace, and far breezier than the royal we all know and love (?), she treats us to quite the show.

In a 4-minute video, after lamenting the departure of Harry & Meghan, the digital knock-off praises the pandemic efforts of the NHS and takes a swipe at the reproductively gifted Boris Johnson. But this all pales in comparison to the lively TikTok dance performance she puts on while a spoof royal corgi watches on aghast.

It’s certainly something, that’s for sure!

Other than giving us a laugh, what was the point of the parody? Voiced by actress Debra Stephenson (who, probably intentionally, poorly replicates the real McCoy’s cut-glass vernacular, and who incidentally voiced Melania Trump in 2019 comedy film The Queen’s Corgi), the ersatz Lizzy appeared on screens across the UK yesterday to remind people about the dangers of deepfake technology.

Even though Channel 4’s regal creation mentions the importance of tech in tackling the greatest challenges of 2020, they say she was designed to offer “a stark warning about the advanced technology that is enabling the proliferation of misinformation and fake news in a digital age.”

While my friends and I found the gag-filled broadcast hilarious (the vulgar, morally bankrupt bunch that we are), others called it a “disgusting,” “mean-spirited” and “unpatriotic” insult to tradition. Nigel Farage was furious, and anything that pisses off that little weasel is all good in my eyes.

Regardless of whether you side with me or Farage, Channel 4’s divisive warning was badly needed. Those who closely follow the progress of AI in the media understand the threat posed by deepfakes, but the general public, on the whole, hasn’t a clue what we’re faced with. It’s about time this cautionary message edged out of the relatively exclusive tech tent and into the mainstream.

Today, so many people fail to question the content they find online — whether it comes in written, audio or visual form. They blindly trust the information that articles, clips and videos disseminate, which is exactly why we need to spark a louder global dialogue around trust in technology — especially those powered by artificial intelligence.

“Trust,” Channel 4’s mock-up monarch says, is the theme of her message. “Trust in what is genuine and what is not.”

Before a few flickers cleverly reveal Stephenson sitting in front of a green screen, asking the Channel 4 production crew for a cuppa, her character argues that we need to consider “whether what we see and hear is always what it seems.”

And she’s right. What we see and hear isn’t always what it seems — as is the case here. In this instance, the deepfake wasn’t all that convincing (again, likely intentionally), and the explicit transition to reality at the end of the video made it clear this Queen (just as robotic as our own) was a fake.

However, other efforts in this respect, even if few and far between, appear much more authentic. And they’re only getting better. As with AI technologies in general, because the capabilities of deepfake tech continue to improve, we absolutely have to worry about it falling into the wrong hands. Although these systems aren’t used (or, I should say, misused) widely yet, that doesn’t mean they couldn’t be.

Even tech giants are more than a little nervous. At the beginning of the year, to combat the spread of misinformation, Facebook announced that it would remove any videos heavily manipulated by AI in ways aimed at misleading users. And ahead of the 2020 US election (which we all know didn’t go terribly well anyway), TikTok and other social media platforms said they would follow suit.

While this is all generally a step in the right direction, we should be careful here. Yes, deepfakes represent a credible threat, one of which the public must be made aware. But a key downside to overstating the problem is whipping up a panic, which could cause people to question the reliability of genuine content. Ultimately, we want internet users to approach information with a critical eye, but there’s a fine line between critical and hypercritical.

Various companies are developing technologies that protect the public against deepfakes, while many governments have chosen to head down the legislative path — neither option is without its flaws though. Until the right solutions are developed, we have no alternative but to rely on the public sector to do the right thing — that is, organisations like Facebook and TikTok banning deepfake content and those like Channel 4 getting the word out there.

In the meantime, we should do as our fake Queen tells us — move beyond “Netflix and Phil” (or, for most of us, Netflix & chill), beginning to digest content with some measure of care. Let’s just make sure it looks a little more like cautious optimism rather than full-blown scepticism.

Before you head off, watch Channel 4’s deepfake Queen’s Speech here. And if you’re really in the mood to go down a rabbit hole, check out this one by vegan meat firm THIS, which ingeniously plays on the idea that “things aren’t always what they seem” to promote their plant-based meat alternatives — very smart!

After the recent controversy surrounding Netflix’s portrayal of the Royal Family in its hit series The Crown, I wonder what our sovereign thinks of all these dodgy representations of her. Not much, one would imagine.