Deepfake Star Wars Videos Portent Ways The Technology Could Be Employed For Good And Bad

This isn't the first time that we must question whether "seeing" is in fact "believing" Earlier this week the YouTube channel Shamook highlighted the latest Deepfake technology in which scenes involving two notable characters in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story were greatly enhanced. This was the latest such use of Deepfakes in pop culture. What was impressive about this most recent use of the technology is that it made the character of Governor Tarkin seem more lifelike and more closely resembled Peter Cushing, the late actor who played the role originally in the 1977 film Star Wars. The same technology was previously employed earlier this year on the YouTube channel to "de-age" Robert De Niro and the results were far than what was actually seen in the Netflix original film The Irishman. Both of the "original" versions seem far more cartoony and fall into that "uncanny valley" of not being quite real.