Viral Deepfake Video of Patrick Mahomes Sparks Debate on AI's Impact in Sports and Beyond

No, That's Not Patrick Mahomes: Millions View Deepfake Super Bowl Video

'I'm a choker, I'm a trash can. Jalen Hurts absolutely destroyed me tonight," the fake Mahomes says. Quarterback Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs didn't have the best day Sunday, as they were thoroughly defeated 40-22 in Super Bowl LIX. Video creators seized the moment to use AI to poke fun at the three-time Super Bowl MVP in a surprisingly realistic deepfake video. Viewer discretion is advised, as some of the jokes are NSFW "I'm a choker, I'm a trash can. Jalen Hurts absolutely destroyed me tonight," the fake Mahomes said in the video, which was posted to both TikTok and YouTube. Fake Mahomes goes on to criticize teammate Travis Kelce, Chiefs' coach Andy Reid, and even Kelce's girlfriend, superstar singer Taylor Swift. "And Travis Kelce was too worried about fixing his hair the whole game trying to look cute for Taylor Swift," Fake Mahomes says. "He went ghost when I needed him most." This wasn't just a small joke video that no one saw. As of Monday afternoon, the TikTok video had a whopping 7.7 million views, and more than 557,000 likes. The video creator did make it clear that the video was AI-generated. They used the "creator labeled as AI-generated" label that TikTok introduced last year, and the video itself features a watermark. Read more: Here's How To Rewatch the Kendrick Lamar Super Bowl Halftime Show The realistic AI was made using Parrot AI, according to its creator. On a smartphone at a distance, it's difficult to tell that it's generated by AI at all. However, a closer look reveals the fake Mahomes' entire mouth and jaw quivering unnaturally multiple times throughout the video. It was still enough to fool many people on TikTok who watched the video. "This is the most realistic AI I've ever seen," remarked one commenter, followed by a "bruh the AI is getting scary good" from another. Most Chiefs fans took the joke in stride. "I'm a Chiefs fan and this is funny as hell," remarked another TikTok user. This is one more deepfake AI video in a long-running series of joke videos poking fun at the Kansas City Chiefs. Most of them involve the conspiracy theory that the NFL referees call games in the Chiefs' favor. One example features AI-generated audio of the referee declaring that "during the play, personal foul, violating Patrick Mahomes' personal bubble. The result of the play is first down, touchdown, and Chiefs win by 50 points." Mahomes is one of many celebrities depicted in deepfake AI videos. Tom Hanks and CBS Mornings host Gayle King had AI-generated deepfakes used in ads without their permission. Deepfake videos of Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and Joe Biden were popular during the most recent election. Meanwhile, this terrifying deepfake shows Bill Hader's face slowly warping into Tom Cruise's face. Facebook has been stepping up its effort to crack down on celebrity deepfakes and misinformation campaigns after a video of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was posted falsely directing Ukrainian soldiers to surrender to Russian forces. Other tech companies like Google are also taking steps, with the search giant making it easier to remove deepfake images from Google Search.

Harmless Fun? Sports Fans Seize on Chiefs Loss to Create Realistic Deepfakes

(Credit: Kevin Sabitus/Contributor/Getty Images Sport via Getty Images) Video creators were quick to capitalize on last night's Eagles win at the Super Bowl, producing ultra-realistic deepfake clips of the losing team, including Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes. In the NSFW video below, the AI Mahomes' voice is so realistic that it's not immediately clear it's fake. The video has been viewed over 6.4 million times, with 458K likes as of this writing. Upon further examination, we can see a slight twitch of AI Mahomes' mouth as "he" talks, but otherwise the footage seems near perfect. The clearest signal that it's AI is the fine print at the bottom of the video: "Creator labeled as AI-generated," which is easy to miss amid a mindless social media scroll. "This is the most realistic AI I've ever seen," says one commenter. Another adds: "You win the internet for this," while someone else jokes: "I don't know, this might be real." In Mahomes' real post-game press conference, the devastated quarterback takes "all the blame" for the loss. The Kansas City Chiefs were gunning for their third consecutive win, something no other NFL team has done before. The account behind the deepfakes is ScaryAI, which posts parody AI videos of athletes like Steph Curry and LeBron James "talking" about recent controversies and events. After the Golden State Warriors lost to the Los Angeles Lakers in January, ScaryAI posted a video that shows Steph Curry requesting to be traded to the Lakers in a faux press conference. The account's bio urges people to get the Parrot AI app "to make videos like mine." Scary AI does not seem to be owned or operated by Parrot. The AI app has a creator program whereby videos made using Parrot that get over 1 million views earn $100, and the most viral videos of the month get $5,000. Parrot links out to a few examples, and several are from Scary AI. These videos are legal and are relatively harmless. The viewer may feel deceived for a moment, but most people know that trash talk is par for the course among sports fandoms. However, on more consequential subjects, such as personal health and election integrity, they could present a serious societal problem. Theoretically, anyone could create a social media video featuring an "expert" spreading false information or a politician making an outlandish claim. Parrot, for example, lets you use its AI voice generator to create clips of Joe Biden, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump, as well as tech execs like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg. For now, the videos people have made featuring them appear to be rather juvenile and inconsequential. And Parrot's terms prohibit using its tech "to harass, abuse, stalk, threaten or defame any person or entity." But less scrupulous AI tools certainly exist. In 2023, a fake video of President Joe Biden spread on Facebook, which Meta's oversight board ultimately decided to keep up. A manipulated clip of former VP Kamala Harris then made the rounds on X in July, thanks in part to CEO Elon Musk retweeting it. Meta recently removed AI Facebook profiles that were intended to exist alongside legit ones, 404 Media reports. "These were managed by humans and were part of an early experiment we did with AI characters," Meta said in January. "We identified the bug that was impacting the ability for people to block those AIs and are removing those accounts to fix the issue." Meta has also experimented with AIs featuring authorized celebrity voices. Federal and state lawmakers have introduced bills to go after unauthorized deepfakes. In September, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a bill into law that prevents AI deepfakes from appearing on social media ahead of an election. That prompted a lawsuit from Elon Musk, who argues it would make "parody illegal" on social media.