A Convincing Deepfake Demo Rattles The TED Audience

When Tom Graham, cofounder and CEO of AI video startup Metaphysic, gradually morphed the video image of his face into that of TED director Chris Anderson in real time, as Anderson was interviewing him live on stage earlier this week at the TED2023 event in Vancouver, you could hear the gasps fill the room. The TED audience, who you can’t really characterize as a mob of luddite peasants with pitchforks, were as alarmed at the implications of this technology as they were impressed with the technical virtuosity of the application.

Graham’s company is commercializing the video deepfake technology behind the viral sensation “Deep Tom Cruise” as a VFX solution for the entertainment industry. It is part of a wave of new tools being developed using generative AI to create photorealistic imagery and motion video good enough to mimic live performance and blend seamlessly with actual photography. The technology debuted on “America’s Got Talent” and Graham said it will see its first wide-scale exposure in a feature film to de-age Tom Hanks and Robin Wright in the upcoming Robert Zemeckis project Here.