In the United Kingdom this year, the alternative Christmas message was delivered to the residents by a deep fake of Queen Elizabeth II. While the British monarch delivered messages on the BBC and ITV, her digitally created doppelganger addressed the nation on free to air Channel 4. In addendum to sharing her “thoughts,” the deepfake queen also tried her hand on Tik Tok viral dance challenge.
According to BBC, the five-minute-long message referred to a number of controversial topics, including Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s decision to leave the UK. It also alluded to the Duke of York’s decision to step down from royal duties following his relationship with sex offended Jeffrey Epstein. The deepfake was created by Oscar-winning VFX studio Framestore with the 94-year-old monarch’s voice being dubbed by actress Debra Stephenson.
The video has sparked a mixed reaction online with some calling it offensive to the British tradition while others chuckling at the impossibility of it.
Meanwhile, Queen Elizabeth addressed the United Kingdom as well as the Commonwealth on December 25. In her speech, which she wrote down herself, she lauded the “indomitable spirit” of those who have risen “magnificently” to the challenges of the pandemic.
The longest-serving British monarch recorded her speech from Windsor Castle, where she and Prince Philip will be spending the holidays this year, instead of Sandringham in Norfolk, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Her annual Christmas speech will be available on Amazon’s Alexa devices this year. Alexa users across the globe will be able to summon the Queen into their living rooms with the help of the cloud-based voice service from 3 pm (GMT) on December 25. Anyone with the Amazon Echo set to English – be that British, American, or Indian- will be able to listen to the speech.
