I'm aware that the fact that I'm writing this on April 1 may bode unserious, but this is a real thing that is happening on the internet: a deepfake Drake is teaching trigonometry with the late Queen Elizabeth on TikTok.
In a CBC News story about ever-growing misinformation concerns, journalist Hannah Hormillada spoke to sisters Leanne and Natasha Manikavasagar, who are currently high school students in Brampton, about an AI-generated video posted on the platform, which sees the rapper describe the "hella useful" mathematical concept.
"I was shocked," said Natasha, who's in Grade 9. Leanne, Grade 12, added, "Drake looked kind of weird, like his mouth did not match … the way he was … making hand gestures and stuff. It's really weird."
The video was posted by @onlocklearning, a user that also has a video of "Ice Spice" and "Elon Musk" talking about logarithms that has racked up 10 million views.
"While some educators see the potential for these images to raise student interest in topics such as math, they question whether they offer real learning opportunities and worry about the possibility for misinformation to spread," Hormillada wrote. "Others see the images as an opportunity to increase media literacy and help students learn how to spot misinformation."
As alarming and dystopian hellscape-y as the whole concept is, let's talk about the Drake video specifically for a second. It sees the deepfake version of him seemingly on a boat while discussing triangles — which apparently he and his buddies do a lot, using SOHCAHTOA to remember which ratio goes with which function.
"Drake, let's label each side first," the late Queen Elizabeth chimes in. "You, of all people, should know the longest one." Is this a joke about Drake's dick?! It's officially getting way too Silicon Valley over on the clock app.
