In this episode of Swetlana AI podcast we're discussing the paradoxical rise of AI-generated video content, highlighting its astonishing creative freedom alongside significant ethical risks. This technology is actively blurring reality, manipulating emotions, and fueling misinformation across social media platforms.

Several viral AI video tropes are identified:

• Deepfake "expert" avatars are prevalent on platforms like TikTok and Instagram, posing as doctors, dietitians, or wellness gurus to dispense advice, often pushing dubious products. These "experts" are entirely computer-generated and have been called out for spewing unfounded medical advice. Notable signs of their artificiality include uncanny mouth movements, lips not syncing with audio, odd head movements, and an overall "unreal feeling". Some alleged deepfake characters have also appeared as salespeople or claimed Hollywood connections.

• Emotional fictional characters like "Ernesto," a supposed America's Got Talent contestant, have gone viral with a tear-jerking backstory and performance ("I built our home with bleeding hands"), amassing millions of views before being debunked as entirely AI-generated. These narratives exploit human empathy, and even when aware of the fakery, many viewers still find them emotionally compelling.

• Tech benchmarks like the "Will Smith eating spaghetti" deepfake have become community standards for evaluating AI realism. While newer models are nearly acing these tests, concerns about undetectable fakes are amplified.

• Surreal, low-budget AI commercials such as "Synthetic Summer" (a beer ad) and "Pepperoni Hug Spot" (a pizza promo) have gone viral due to their uncanny visuals, multiple fingers, floating limbs, and eerie or absurd nature, blurring humor and horror.

• Surrealist internet folklore like the "Italian Brainrot" meme phenomenon features AI-generated creatures with pseudo-Italian names and dramatic voiceovers, reflecting Gen Z's post-ironic humor.

• Synthetic influencers and deepfake celebrities are being deployed by brands for scalable content creation, with AI-generated celebrity impersonations also gaining traction in entertainment.

• Hyper-realistic environmental stylizations include GTA-style cityscapes and eerie natural scenes that prompt disbelief and emotional reactions, blurring the line between reality and game worlds.

• Disinformation and hateful content are also propagated through AI-generated videos. One example of a widely believed, yet fake, video showed barnacles being removed from a whale at sea, which was debunked by inconsistencies like a changing brush and the implausibility of the scenario itself.

The proliferation of these AI-generated videos presents significant challenges, as it becomes increasingly difficult to distinguish real footage from digital imitations, "clogging" social media feeds. Shared themes include the manipulation of emotion and trust, the use of viral content as technical benchmarks, and the exploitation of uncanny aesthetics for entertainment.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.