When several life-like Tom Cruise deepfakes went viral on TikTok, many saw the future of truth through a glass, darkly -- out of concern for a world where acquiring deepfakes of major celebrities or political figures would become a "one-click" feature of daily life. Like it or not, we live in a world where anyone can interact with deepfake technology. But curating high-end specialized AI drivers -- whether for mischief or raising awareness -- is harder than it looks. The creator of the video -- a Belgium VFX specialist named Chris Ume -- thinks this is unlikely, emphasizing the impractically long timespans and substantial effort required to build every deepfake, in addition to finding an ace Tom Cruise impersonator (Miles Fisher). "You can't do it by just pressing a button," said Ume in a report from The Verge.

Three days ago, a TikTok account going by @deeptomcruise began posting video clips of the Hollywood actor Tom Cruise doing everything from golfing, to tripping and telling a joke in what appears to be a men's clothing store in Italy, to performing a magic trick with a coin. In each of the three videos, Cruise delivers his signature maniacal laugh--you know, the one he repeatedly unleashed in that batty Scientology recruitment video years back--before launching into some sort of bit, and in all of them, it looks just like Cruise. There are a few giveaways, of course. Also, his voice is hollow and scratchy, a la that scene in Face/Off where John Travolta-as-Nicolas Cage is trying to adjust his vocals to that Cage-ian timbre. Still, the Cruise TikToks managed to bewilder and horrify a number of people.

New deepfake videos of actor Tom Cruise have made their way onto TikTok under the handle @deeptomcruise, and boy do they look real. They're so realistic, in fact, it's possible that you wouldn't even know they're computer-generated had you not been alerted by the account's handle. And they were made using not much more than sample footage of Cruise and deepfake technology that's getting easier for anyone to use. Not even two years ago it would have been easy to differentiate between a real and an AI-generated video of somebody. But the technology is advancing so rapidly that we've reached a point of escape velocity, and it's obvious that deepfakery isn't going to be used just for innocent purposes, like animating pictures of your past relatives.

There is some solace in knowing that pop star Justin Bieber has something in common with many people in the world. He is as susceptible to fake news as anyone. The'Baby' hitmaker was reportedly fooled on Thursday, October 7 by a deepfake video of actor and Scientology advocate Tom Cruise. As per the DailyDot, in numerous stories on his Instagram account, Bieber praised the actor while sharing footage of what he believed was Cruise playing the guitar. Tagging the official account of Cruise, Bieber stated that he was "impressed" with the actor's supposed musical chops.

Earlier this year, a viral video of Tom Cruise was posted on social media of him doing magic, playing golf and much more, which in reality wasn't even him. Let me explain, a VFX artist named Chris Ume deepfaked these videos using AI, resulting in an internet frenzy. The question now arises, what is deepfake technology? To explain it simply, it's when real photos & videos are manipulated with the help of AI, and are then turned into fake photos & videos for a specific purposes. For obvious reasons, deepfakes are pretty dangerous since this technology can easily be used for blackmailing, fake news and scamming. But surprisingly, there are a few pros too.