We’ve Reached the Deepfake Tipping Point
DeepTomCruise is the start of something not very good
Tom Cruise is on TikTok but hasn’t produced a single video. DeepTomCruise, on the other hand, has a nice little collection of clips, all featuring Cruise’s trademark grin, intensity, and staccato delivery. He even performed a sleight-of-hand magic trick. It would be easy to mistake the two.
By now, you’ve probably seen the Deepfake version of Tom Cruise that briefly lit up TikTok (and the rest of social and traditional media) with just four convincing, but slightly plasticine versions of Tom Cruise. Deepfakes have been on our radar for years, but these clips were noticeable for their stunning verisimilitude. I’ve done some real research on deepfake technology and am supposed to be a skeptical journalist but even I was, for just a few moments, fooled.
Cruise has long been a prime deepfake target because, like other highly popular and productive movie stars and celebrities, there’s a ton of source material that programmers can use to map his face onto another performer’s…
