I had my reservations about the story of a mom making deepfakes of her daughter's cheerleading rivals.

One of the videos released by abc doesn't appear to be a deepfake, but they still label it as one without substantial proof or analysis.

1/8 The following aspects make it highly unlikely that this video is a deepfake:

1) the vape pen/cloud/hand moving over the girl's face

2) the face moving outside the video frame

3) the awkward facial angles

4) the very low video resolution and high saturation

2/8

I shared my thoughts on TikTok's viral Tom Cruise deepfakes with @thetimes' @tkbeynon.

Whilst these deepfakes have concerned many, the realism can be largely attributed to the interplay of three limiting factors.

thetimes.co.uk/article/deepfa… 1) The impersonator's excellent performance mirroring Cruise's speech, accent, mannerisms, gait, and appearance.

2) The expertise of a professional 'deepfaker', who likely spent many hours generating the faceswap and applying post-production edits.