The world of deepfakes is expanding and we’re not sure how to feel about it.

The technology that allows you to put anyone’s face onto anyone’s body has been used in myriad ways, like creating convincing porn videos of celebrities, including Gal Gadot and Taylor Swift.

Things are getting so bad that organisations like Future Advocacy are creating political deepfakes to generate awareness around the power of the tech to spread misinformation.

Then there’s the monstrosity that you’re about to watch.

The Verge explains:

The film site Collider has created a deepfake roundtable that has to be seen to be (dis)believed. It stars Robert Downey, Jr., George Lucas, Tom Cruise, Ewan McGregor, and Jeff Goldblum, and while it’s an obvious fake, it’s also a pretty entertaining one. We’ve really gone to a strange place in the uncanny valley.

It’s worth a watch just for the Jeff Goldblum ‘impersonation’:

Weird, but still not as weird as the deepfake that saw Bill Hader’s face changing into Tom Cruise and Seth Rogen as he talks about them in an interview with David Letterman.

It looks like Tom Cruise is turning into a bit of a deepfake favourite.

Apart from the obvious disparity between the size of Robert Downey Jr.’s head and shoulders, it’s a very convincing deepfake. Apparently, this is thanks to a team of celebrity impersonators who provide the base performance for each fake.

Then with the help of machine learning, the impersonators’ faces are overlaid with those of their Hollywood targets. The results aren’t perfect (just look at the mismatch with the lighting on fake Tom Cruise, for example) but they’re certainly compelling.

Josh Robert Thompson, who plays both Goldblum and Lucas, posted this on Twitter:

Deep Fake, uh, finds a way. #JeffGoldblum pic.twitter.com/XK0sSb5ND1

— Josh Robert Thompson (@joshrthompson) November 16, 2019

Deepfakes have been around for nearly three years now and they’re only getting quicker and easier to make.

There’s nothing left to do but wait for the next horror to find its way into the world.

[source:verge]