These Tom Cruise Deepfakes Are Disturbingly Realistic

TikTok user deeptomcruise is showing us some real magic

BY Allie GregoryPublished Mar 2, 2021

We've seen some pretty decent deepfakes since the technology first landed in the hands of internet amateurs back in 2017. From Nick Offerman to John Malkovich and even Oprah, celebrity faces have proven to be some of the more popular masks among internet nerds messing around with the budding technology. Now, a newly-launched TikTok profile has adopted the face of Tom Cruise, with disturbingly realistic results.

"I'm going to show you some magic. It's the real thing," laughs the fake Tom Cruise in their most recent upload on the app. "I mean, it's all the real thing."

As suggested by their username, deeptomcruise, the video of Cruise's face is not the real thing at all, but a very convincing ruse fuelled by artificial intelligence and machine learning.

So far, the new profile has only three videos uploaded: one of "Cruise" performing a magic trick, another telling a joke and one of the impersonator talking about golf while donning the actor's face as a digital mask. While the mystery user's vocal impersonation could use a bit of work, the AI is almost undetectable.

As deepfake technology continues to improve in clarity and advance beyond jokey face-swapping for Instagram videos and ironic sketch comedies, you can see the possibly dangerous implications deepfakes like Mr. Mission Impossible's below — especially when you compare the quality of these new videos to the ones of Cruise that were circulating less than two years ago.

If the comments section of deeptomcruise's profile is proof of anything, it's that some people are pretty convinced this is the real thing — which could prove disastrous for the future.
 
@deeptomcruise

Sports!

♬ original sound - Tom

 
@deeptomcruise

 

♬ original sound - Tom

 
@deeptomcruise

I love magic!

♬ original sound - Tom

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