A series of deepfake videos of Tom Cruise is confusing millions of TikTok users.

These videos were posted by the “deeptomcruise” account last week and show the protagonist of Mission Impossible (or rather … his fabricated imitator) doing a trick, playing golf, and sharing memories of him meeting Mikhail Gorbachev.

The clips have so far garnered over 11 million views on this platform, but are already widely circulated on other social media, leaving everyone with … their mouths open.

A series of deepfake videos of Tom Cruise is confusing millions of TikTok users. See the convincing videos and learn how this technology could be used to spread misinformation. https://t.co/sotNbbdYzq pic.twitter.com/IOUCcJZUUm

— CNN (@CNN) March 3, 2021

Three videos in this thread that are not #TomCruise on #TikTok. They are #DeepFakes of Tom Cruise on TikTok, created by #ArtificialIntelligence. In the future it will become increasingly difficult to believe the evidence of our own eyes.#DeepTomCruise pic.twitter.com/1QFvAYLffB

— Keith Mansfield??✨ (@KeithMansfield) March 3, 2021

Deepfakes are the most dangerous form of crime through artificial intelligence, according to a report from University College London.

The term “deepfake” refers to a video where artificial intelligence and deep learning – an algorithmic learning method used to train computers – has been used to make a person appear to say something they have not.

The authors said that deepfake content is a danger for a number of reasons: a prominent one is that it would be difficult to find. This is because while deepfake detectors require training through hundreds of videos and must be victorious in every instance, malicious individuals only have to be successful once.

A second reason is the variety of crimes deepfakes could be used for, such as discrediting a public figure by impersonating a family member. The long-term effect of this could lead to a distrust of audio and video evidence in general, which the researchers say would be an inherent societal harm.

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