Uploaded by the YouTube account The Fakening on Wednesday, this particular deepfake transposes the faces of the tech billionaires Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk onto a scene from the original “Star Trek” series. Musk’s face is transposed onto that of the human Captain Pike, while Bezos is transformed into a member of the bulbous-headed alien race known as Talosians.
According to Victor Riparbelli, the cofounder and CEO of the British deepfake startup Synthesia, the video is a “great example” of deepfake technology.
“I think this is a great example of the current state of the art in highly realistic face-swapping,” Riparbelli. “Results like these still require lots of custom work and artistry along with significant expense on compute power (I’d estimate $100-300) but it’s in the hands of passionate individuals, not companies.”
