The Most Realistic and Popular Celeb Deepfakes that Exist Right Now

With the increasing accessibility of Artificial Intelligence technology to the average person, celeb deepfakes are a phenomenon that has exploded in number and popularity on online platforms. The ability to create realistic representations, both images and videos, of popular personalities is a form of entertainment people did not even know they needed or wanted.

But the rising cases and instances of these deepfakes also raise some concerns and problems for people, especially popular people. When you can make a popular person say anything, it provides you with a level of power that the average person has never before had.

So, let’s talk about celebrity deepfakes and some of the most popular cases and examples that exist right now.

How does a deepfake work?

A celeb deepfake is any piece of video footage where machine learning technology has been used to replace the face of someone in a video with another face. The important aspect here is that a deepfake is simply a face attached to a body.

But, while attaching a different face onto a body in a single image might be as simple as opening Photoshop and doing some quick work when we talk about a full video with proper motion, things as you can probably tell, get a lot more complicated.

For video image replacement, deepfakes use AI and machine learning to achieve their goals. How this works is by providing the computer with large amounts of data and information regarding the face of the person, or celebrity that you want to use to make celebrity AI deepfakes from. The system then learns the natural movements of that face from all possible angles.

It then implants that face onto the required video footage, in a way that seems extremely realistic as it works from all angles. The technology works well enough that it can convince most everyday people looking at it.

The Potential Impact of Deepfakes

Deepfakes are one of the most controversial topics when it comes to modern technological innovations. Most of the arguments surrounding it involve the potential negative impact of this technology.

The main and most obvious argument against deepfakes is that they can be used to spread misinformation very easily. Coming from the mouth of a celebrity or other influential person, any piece of information can be propagated very easily to the public and be accepted as truth by a major chunk of them at the very least. This can have even more impact than a person might think. Information can be manipulated to be used for political or ideological gains and goals.

The other aspect is of course invasion of privacy. The unfortunate reality is that any person’s face can be put on any body, of any person, performing any kind of action. This means that your face can be put on the body of a person doing something illegal, and a decent amount of people will believe you to be a criminal.

Popular Instances of Celebrity Deep Fakes

Now, to give you an idea of just how significant these celebrity deep fakes are, here are a few instances of these videos in the last few years:

1) Tom Cruise Deepfakes

Possibly the most well-known instance of these deepfakes that swept the internet a little while ago are the deepfakes created of actor Tom Cruise. Almost everyone who has been online on any social media platform in the last few years, especially TikTok and Instagram, has seen at least one video of Tom Cruise in some random situation or conversation.

What is interesting is that there is an entire TikTok account by the name of ‘deeptomcruise’ that is entirely dedicated to posting videos of Tom Cruise’s face deepfaked into completely random videos of everyday people.

2) Korean Deepfake News Anchor

In one of the most interesting uses of deepfake technology for a more non-malicious purpose, a South Korean news channel has used and practically replaced a news anchor by the name of Kim Joo-Ha with a deepfake version of herself.

This case is a great example of what the future possibilities and impact can be of this unique technology. This and similar uses of deepfakes will pose the framework of most conversations in the future surrounding this phenomenon.

3) Tom Hanks Advertisement Deep Fake

Another celebrity deepfake that caused a bit of commotion a little while ago involved a dentist clinic using one of the most well-known and beloved actors in Hollywood, Tom Hanks’s face in one of their ads. 

The reason it caused such a commotion is because the actor spoke out himself online, on their Instagram account, to clarify that they were not involved in the making of the video.

Closing Thoughts

Celebrity deepfakes, and deepfake technology in general, is one of the most concerning uses of AI that currently exist. Its potential future impact can already be predicted based on instances of celebrity deepfakes that exist right now.