Deepfake technology isn’t a new concept. In 1991, Terminator 2 became the first film to create an entirely computer-generated character with realistic human movements (and incidentally, one of cinema’s most iconic villains). And ever since, media like movies and video games have constructed thousands of realistic, sympathetic, and engaging characters out of pixels alone.
This process used to be incredibly time-consuming and costly, the preserve of experts. But in recent years, the technology required to create photorealistic depictions of people has spread into the hands of everyday users. In 2021, a TikTok account named @deeptomcruise began posting humorous deepfake videos of Hollywood star Tom Cruise. It’s since amassed over 5.1 million followers and has even evolved into an industry-leading generative AI business. Meanwhile, as the accessibility of Generative AI tech cascaded, 2022 and 2023 saw a wider emergence of deepfake videos that spread like wildfire across social media.
