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Wiser! #4 — The deepfake augmented issue of reality
9 min readApr 11, 2021
Featuring Brad Pitt v Rick Huckstep, not Tom Cruise, chatbots from the other side plus some crypto and digital dentistry stuff
What’s the fuss about Deepfakes?
The recent spate of Tom Cruise videos on TikTok have raised the profile of deepfakes and the ease with which they can fool. These particular ones were created by visual effects (VFX) specialist Chris Ume under the giveaway name of @deeptomcruise!
The clips took months to create using AI from DeepFaceLab and CGI (plus hours of manual manipulation).
Cruise is not the first to be deepfaked. Some of my favourite celebrity videos include;
- 1970’s Wonder Woman Lynda Carter super-imposed onto Gal Gadot’s 21st century version.
- A round table discussion with Tom Cruise, Robert Downey Jr, Jeff Goldblum and Ewan McGregor (now that’s a dinner party I’d love to have!).
- Salvador Dali is brought to life by ad agency CS&P.
- Bill Hader on SNL who subtly morphs into Al Pacino and Arnold Schwarenegger (this is my favourite one).
