The lines between reality and fiction are becoming more blurred as newfangled technology rears its head. I remember when deepfakes first came out, and seeing merely experimental videos utilizing that technology was frightening. Deepfakes essentially marked the beginning of an era of the internet where we knew that anyone, anything they said, and anything they did could be completely manufactured and fake. It was only a matter of time before deepfake or fully virtual celebrities emerged. The most famous wholly virtual person to gain a major following is influencer Lil Miquela, a virtual young woman who is very obviously animated and uncanny. The question remains: who will become the first deepfake influencer who looks and acts like a real person?

Unfortunately, this realistic deepfake influencer won’t be Curt Skelton, a TikToker who tried to convince his fans he was exactly that. He posted a pretty convincing explanation of how he was created by a computer, only to reveal later this was a joke.