Thread by @benjaminwittes

Here's a funny story from the making of #TheReport, told in honor of the work that @BobbyChesney and @daniellecitron have done on #DeepFakes. As we were beginning work on Volume II of The Report, our executive producer, Ian Enright of @GoatRodeoDC, brought to our attention...

A Twitter feed called @StableVoices, which is well, a #DeepFake that imitates the voice of President Trump. We began fantasizing about using for all of Trump's lines in Volume II a character we dubbed #DeepFakeTrump, which would be the lines as synthesized by @StableVoices.

So Ian got in touch and asked @StableVoices whether #DeepFakeTrump was possible. Ian sent a key line to see how well it might work. Here's what @StableVoices sent back in response:
drive.google.com/file/d/1ku0tr4…

The clip was hilarious. So as we were preparing Episode 9 of The Report this week, we asked @StableVoices to have #DeepFakeTrump record for us all of lines Trump speaks in the passages of the Mueller report that we quote in this week's script: drive.google.com/file/d/1QEDspu…

Then, we integrated it with The Report voice in a kind of mockup of the Mueller report—as read by me—with #DeepFakeTrump playing well @realDonaldTrump. The passage sounds like this.
drive.google.com/file/d/18tYve8…

In the end, though it was completely hilarious, we decided not to use #DeepFakeTrump in The Report—because it was too hilarious and we thought it would distract listeners from the narrative and analytical content of the series. That said, we also also loved #DeepFakeTrump.

I tell this story to share him with you all—and also as an illustrative example of #DeepFakes in action. It's really very impressive.
Many thanks to @StableVoices.

And if you're not listening to The Report, well, you should be.