---
title: "Watch a Deepfake Turn Footage of New York Into a Cubist Painting"
description: "A new video uses deepfake tech to turn recorded footage of New York City into a bizarre, stylistic Picasso-like landscape."
date: "2019-10-03"
modified: "2019-10-03"
authors:
  - name: "Dan Robitzski"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/danrobitzski"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/deepfake-footage-new-york-cubist-painting"
categories:
  - "Artificial Intelligence"
tags:
  - "artificial intelligence"
  - "deepfake"
  - "the digest"
---

# Watch a Deepfake Turn Footage of New York Into a Cubist Painting

![A new video uses deepfake tech to turn recorded footage of New York City into a bizarre, stylistic Picasso-like landscape.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/deepfake-footage-new-york-cubist-painting.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: Matchue via YouTube\</em\>*

## Big AIpple

Thanks to a deepfake-generating AI tool, New York City's Times Square just became even more chaotic.

A [new video](<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_d4IrHMLRc&feature=youtu.be>) uses AI to re-imagine [existing footage](<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCdBIRtsL6o>) of Manhattan in the style of Carlos Merida's 1982 cubist painting, "[A hymn to the Shulamite](<https://www.wikiart.org/en/carlos-merida/a-hymn-to-the-shulamite-1982>)." The video, posted Tuesday by the AI-tinkering YouTube channel Matchue, is a [fun art project](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/spider-man-deepfake-tom-holland-emo>) — but also a sign of how deft algorithms are getting at interpreting and manipulating footage of the world.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_d4IrHMLRc&feature=youtu.be

## Style Transfer

Per the deepfake video's description, the algorithm used a technique called style transfer to convert New York City into a picturesque fantasy world populated by disjointed, blocky pedestrians, vehicles, and skyscrapers.

The technique merges two inputs: in this case, video footage of New York and Merida's painting, taking the content from the former and the style of the latter to create a new hybrid. In this case, it turned New York into a colorful landscape that sort of looks like it was rendered on an old PlayStation.

**More on deepfakes:** *[New System Makes It Troublingly Easy to Create Deepfakes](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/system-easy-create-deepfakes>)*

## Author
Dan Robitzki is a senior reporter for Futurism, where he likes to cover AI, tech ethics, and medicine. He spends his extra time fencing and streaming games from Los Angeles, California.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/danrobitzski>)