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.
No, that’s not the real Patrick Mahomes insulting his coach, teammate and 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.
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Look for signs of fakes
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.”
Latest in a long line of celebrity deepfakes
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.
