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Is That You, Tom Cruise? Fake Video Of The Actor Goes Viral, Bringing Artificial Intelligence Technology To A Scary New Level

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Source: TikTok/@deeptomcruise

Mar. 3 2021, Published 3:17 p.m. ET

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If you think Hollywood legend Tom Cruise is on TikTok casually sharing clips of himself — guess again! Those are deepfake videos posted to the social media platform. 

A deepfake video typically involves swapping one person’s face — in this case Cruise's — onto the body of someone else using Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology to match the person’s facial movements and mannerisms

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A series of videos of the Top Gun star have been viewed more than 11 million times on the now mysteriously private TikTok account @deeptomcruise — with experts deeming them the most alarmingly lifelike examples so far of the high-tech hoax.

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The videos of the fake Cruise emerged last week, starting with one claiming to be the 58-year-old actor practicing his golf swing. “If you like what you’re seeing, just wait ’til what’s coming next,” the fake Cruise says — with the clip ending in an incredibly lifelike impersonation of the actor’s instantly recognizable laugh. 

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In a second video, the fake version of the Mission: Impossible actor shared an anecdote about his time in Russia. A third video uploaded late last week showed what appeared to be the A-lister performing a magic trick with a coin. “I’m going to show you some magic. It’s the real thing. I mean, uh, it’s all...the real...thing,” the impersonator said, seemingly poking fun at the fact that he is not the real Tom Cruise. 

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The deepfake videos are so realistic that they have frightened many on social media about what it could mean for safety. “We need to legally shut down a video that borrows more than a specific percentage of our features,” one user tweeted. “This needs to be a GDPR and CCPA crime, identity theft and has to hit the platform failing to immediately delete it. Tom Cruise has a brand and he can sue for confusion thereof.” 

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Rachel Tobac, the CEO of online security company SocialProof, tweeted that the videos proved we have reached a stage of almost “undetectable Deepfakes,” adding that "just because you feel you can personally tell the difference between synthetic & authentic media, it doesn’t mean we’re good to go. It matters what the general public believes.” 

She continued: “Deepfakes will impact public trust, provide cover & plausible deniability for criminals/abusers caught on video or audio, and will be (and are) used to manipulate, humiliate, & hurt people,” she said adding they had “real world safety, political etc impact for everyone.”

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