There aren’t many humans on this Earth who aren’t enamored by the brilliant actor Keanu Reeves. And if one fine day, you suddenly stumble upon a TikTok account featuring Keanu Reeves or at least someone who looks startlingly similar, chances are that you are already sold. Caught in the haze of admiration and wonder, we often forget that we live in a simple world crowded with complex technologies that have become the real-world equivalent of the magic wand. It looks like millions of TikTok users conveniently forgot this as they were wonderstruck by an account that they happily assumed to be that of Reeves’. Turns out, the account is nothing but brilliant use of AI, and the person users thought to be Keanu Reeves is actually a deepfake. Read along to know more.
Is Keanu Reeves Actually On TikTok?
The simple and most obvious answer to that question is a big, clear ‘NO.’ Despite this, a deepfake managed to fool millions of users into believing that Keanu Reeves with zero social media presence made his social media debut. And the result, a whopping 438 million views! To be fair, the account although a cauldron of deepfakes has been entirely honest about what they are doing to the point of naming the account @unreal-keanu. How can anyone get more real about being unreal? And if that is not enough, they have also specifically mentioned on their Instagram page that it is created using AI. Despite these obvious details, a good majority of the users thought that the account belonged to either the actor himself or an oddly similar doppelganger.
If you find it hard to believe that people with rational and fully functioning brains were deceived by deepfakes, then just flip through the comments. All your doubts will be immediately quelled. One video that features the digitally created Reeves dancing has gathered over 115 million views and the comments go like this, “Congrats on the success…and the first person I intentionally followed on this platform…keep it real and keep safe.” However, with time several users got confused as they couldn’t tell whether they were looking at the actual Reeves or digital manipulation.
Users are finally coming to the realization that it was deepfake technology that got them all fooled. Although this whole Keanu Reeves on TikTok situation proves the brilliance of deepfake technology, it is also a warning about the dangers lurking behind this brilliance. Hence, the more cautious we are, the better.
