How A Deepfake Tom Cruise On TikTok Turned Into A Very Real AI Company
How a deepfake Tom Cruise on TikTok turned into a very real AI company
Earlier this year, videos of Tom Cruise goofing around in an upscale men's clothing store; demonstrating a coin trick; and growling playfully during a brief rendition of Dave Matthews Band's "Crash Into Me" began appearing on TikTok.
In one video, he bites into a lollipop and is surprised to discover gum inside. He says to the camera, "Mmmmm." "That is incredible; how come nobody ever informed me of the existence of bubblegum?"
Despite the movie star hair, squinting eyes, and trademark teeth-baring cackle, it wasn't Cruise. The ten videos, which were posted between February and June, featured a computer-generated doppelganger designed to look and sound like him. The deepfakes — a term coined from the terms "deep learning" and "fake" — were created by visual and artificial intelligence effects artist Chris Umé with the assistance of actor Miles Fisher as a Cruise stand-in.
This spoof Cruise was so popular, garnering tens of millions of views on TikTok, that it inspired Umé to form a company called Metaphysic with others in June. It makes otherwise impossible advertisements and restores old film using the same deepfake technology. Metaphysic's deepfake work for clients includes a Gillette razor campaign that recreated a young Deion Sanders and his 1989 draft-day look, as well as a Belgian Football Association campaign that resurrected two deceased Belgium team managers.
Much attention has been paid to the potential for deepfakes to be used for nefarious purposes, and with justification. Deepfake videos first surfaced on Reddit in 2017, with celebrities' faces swapped for those of pornographic stars. Since then, it has frequently been used to create non-consensual pornography. Additionally, legislators have warned that deepfakes could be used to deceive the American public.
Yet Umé and his cofounders are among an increasing number of people who believe that technology can also be enjoyable and enable incredible feats for films, advertisements, and other forms of media that were previously unimaginable even with the best special effects. The Metaphysic founders envision using deepfakes to accomplish a variety of tasks, from making older entertainers appear younger to creating video doubles of famous people that can be used to create commercials — or any other type of content — without requiring them to be physically present on set. However, as the recent controversy surrounding the use of an artificial intelligence-generated voice to portray the late chef and television personality Anthony Bourdain demonstrates, even entertainment uses of such controversial technology can raise eyebrows and ethical concerns.
"Whether anyone likes it or not, technology is progressing," Metaphysic cofounder Tom Graham, a London-based tech entrepreneur, told CNN Business. The company's goal, he explained, is to "really, really focus on developing our product in a way" that avoids contributing to the harmful deepfakes already created by others.
Umé, who previously worked on the pilot episode of the deepfake web series "Sassy Justice" (created by the creators of "South Park"), believes that the future of technology is actually quite bright. "It's a future in which you have more creative freedom and possibilities," he explained.
Deepfakes backed by real effort
It's become relatively easy to locate deepfakes online. Certain smartphone applications even allow you to create them yourself. However, the resulting videos are frequently detectable as manipulated.
Umé and Metaphysic's work is unique, not to mention difficult and time consuming. They're not just attempting to create deepfakes — which, according to makers, require considerable effort to look presentable — but ones that appear as flawless as possible.
Umé spent approximately two and a half months training an AI model on videos and images of the Hollywood star, attempting to capture him from as many angles and lighting conditions as possible for the Cruise videos. This enables the AI model to learn how the actor's skin should react in various shots, according to Umé. Because the goal was to create seemingly candid deepfake videos of Cruise rather than dramatic action shots, the training material included numerous public interviews with Cruise, Umé explained.
Umé was also tasked with the responsibility of filming base videos for the deepfake. According to Umé, Fisher, Cruise's body (and voice) double, conceptualized the videos. Umé then spent two to three days creating a deepfake video combining footage of Fisher and Cruise's face, followed by about another 24 hours using AI tools to enhance video quality.
Occasionally, Umé incorporates devious AI-driven flourishes. For example, this deepfake video purporting to show a mustachioed Cruise displaying his CD collection is actually a mashup of Fisher, Cruise, and a third guy (the mustache comes from Dutch DJ Bram Krikke).
Such details, he believes, demonstrate how effectively AI can be used to alter an actor's appearance — rather than painstakingly altering a video frame by frame with traditional visual effects.
"I'll be the first one to take it down"
Due to the relative youth of this technology, there are no clear guidelines for how deepfakes should be created and shared. For example, it is not yet clear whether or not viewers should be informed that they are viewing a deepfake, or what guidelines should govern the consent process for the deepfake's subject.
Nick Diakopoulos, an associate professor of communication studies and computer science at Northwestern University, believes that we can glean insights from existing media. If you've ever seen a blockbuster film in a theater, you're accustomed to seeing reality mingled with special effects, and you understand that advertisements — such as the one Metaphysic created for Gillette — are intended to be highly manipulative. However, he noted that deepfakes could be customized to appeal to specific demographic groups, or a celebrity endorsing a product in a deepfake advertisement could be chosen to match your interests. In these instances, he believes that disclosure may be necessary to prevent the viewer from feeling manipulated.
"I believe that these ethical issues are extremely difficult to resolve because there are no hard and fast rules that can be drawn and declared, 'We will never cross this line,'" Diakopoulos said.
Umé, who is based in Bangkok, and his Metaphysic cofounders — Umé's brother, Kevin, who is based in Belgium, and Graham — stressed the importance of guardrails for this AI-driven technology. That is, they want to ensure that it is used in an ethical and appropriate manner.
Graham explained that the company is working directly with clients who require deepfakes and is utilizing its own technology to ensure that it maintains some control over the output. Additionally, commercial projects require the subject's consent.
The concerns are timely, as a new documentary about Bourdain was discovered to contain three instances of AI-generated dialogue that appeared to be him speaking. Viewers were initially unaware of the use of AI, and Bourdain's separated wife later spoke out against it on Twitter. (CNN and HBO Max co-produced the documentary; both companies are owned by WarnerMedia.)
Umé has received no complaints from Cruise or any of the other celebrities whose likenesses he has parodied with AI. He stated that he did contact Cruise's management, offering to remove the videos and relinquish control of the TikTok account if Cruise objected to their actions. Umé stated that he simply received a response indicating that the message was received. Cruise has not commented publicly on the deepfakes, and Cruise's representatives have not responded to CNN Business' requests for comment.
Due to Cruise's celebrity status and the fact that the videos are lighthearted parodies, they do not appear to violate a TikTok rule prohibiting "synthetic or manipulated content that misleads users by distorting the truth of events in a way that could cause harm."
"If any of these celebrities ever feel bad about what I'm doing, I'll be the first to take it down," Umé explained. "However, I enjoy hypnotizing people."
Meanwhile, the deeptomcruise account on TikTok has added deepfakes of other celebrities, including a late July video of singer Mariah Carey. She is dressed in black leather and is seated on a motorcycle. She is wearing a black helmet with cat ears.
"I'm sure you never imagined you'd see this, huh?" she says as she peels out of a parking lot.
Here you can learn how to make a deepfake .
