Updated on May 8, 2024: The Deepfakes Analysis Unit received two videos of Tom Cruise for assessment. The latest video, a screenshot of which you can see as the image on the right above, has also been created by the same visual effects and A.I. artist who created the video that we analyse in our assessment report below.
The Deepfakes Analysis Unit (DAU) reviewed a video that apparently features Hollywood actor Tom Cruise cleaning up an industrial facility. The short clip was found to be A.I.-generated and not real. The visual effects and A.I. artist who created the video had posted it from his verified account on the microblogging site X, formerly known as Twitter.
The 29-second clip submitted to the DAU tipline for verification had “#deeptomcruise” superimposed at the bottom of the video with the logo of Tik Tok, a Chinese video app banned in India, visible at the bottom right corner. An online search using hashtag “deeptomcruise” returned several results, including the social media handles of the video creator as well as links to news stories that had reported on Mr.Cruise’s deepfakes as far back as March 2021.
The exact video that the DAU investigated is not new. It was posted by the A.I. artist on X on May 24, 2021 and a day after that Newsweek published this piece about the video with his comments.
The DAU also ran the video through the deepfake detection tool of HIVE AI, an American software company that uses artificial intelligence to create solutions for digital content, and that too confirmed that this video is indeed a deepfake.
(Written by Debraj Sarkar with contributions from Areeba Falak and edited by Pamposh Raina.)
Kindly Note: The manipulated audio/video files that we receive on our tipline are not embedded in our assessment reports because we do not intend to contribute to their virality.