No, That Is Not Tom Cruise On TikTok

Sometimes, your eyes could trick you into thinking something is real, called illusions. But when you see these viral videos of famous actor Tom Cruise on TikTok, what you’re seeing is a deepfake.

Deepfakes are, as you’ve probably guessed, fakes, though they look realistic with the tech seemingly able to stitch anyone into a video or photo that they’ve never even participated. The main thing in deepfakes is machine learning, which can do it much faster and cheaper. The creator would first train the neural network on many hours of video footage of that person to give it a realistic “understanding” of what they look like from different angles and under different lighting. They then combine the network with computer-graphics techniques to superimpose that person’s copy onto another actor. A bit complicated and still time-consuming, but that’s the deepfake that we see.

It might be fun to make a copy of someone famous doing something, but it could also be a way to spread disinformation to others, using a video of, let’s say, the president since many would believe what he says. So check twice before using a source for info. That has been the New News Newsminute, thank you.