--- title: "TikToker Fools Fans Into Thinking He Was Created With CGI" description: "College student and visual effects artist Curt Skelton managed to convince countless users on TikTok that he was the creation of an AI algorithm." date: "2022-08-30" modified: "2022-08-30" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/tiktok-fools-cgi" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" tags: - "artificial intelligence" - "the digest" - "tiktok" --- # TikToker Fools Fans Into Thinking He Was Created With CGI ![College student and visual effects artist Curt Skelton managed to convince countless users on TikTok that he was the creation of an AI algorithm.]() *\Image: Curt Skelton via TikTok\* ## Fool You Once A college student and visual effects artist named Curt Skelton managed to convince countless users on TikTok that he was a fake character created by a different visual effects enthusiast, [*Input* reports](). It's a fascinating and mind-bending prank that shows how difficult it's become to tell digital effects trickery from the real thing, especially given the rise of [photorealistic deepfakes]() and [AI image generators](). ## Real Boy In [a video]() that's been watched over 13.5 million times on the platform, Skelton claimed that he was a 21-year-old visual effects artist Zahra Hussain, arguing that he — or rather she — had used the AI-powered tool DALL-E to generate an image, which was then wrapped around a 3D frame and animated. "Will artificial intelligence replace the role of visual effects artists?" Skelton asks rhetorically in the video. "It already has, I'm not real," the video continues, Curt's voice melting into that of another person, identified as Hussain. "Curt Skelton is a fake character I made using multiple AI-powered programs, and here's how I did it." But the ruse proved to be just a little too convincing. "I don’t know what to believe," one user replied. "I am having a crisis is she being honest or not," another chimed in. https://www.tiktok.com/@curt.skelton/video/7135836562771758382?is_from_webapp=v1&item_id=7135836562771758382 ## That Escalated Quickly As it turns out, both Hussain and Skelton are real visual effects artists. Skelton isn't a character created by Hussain, though they did collaborate on the prank. "He had a full idea down ready to go," Hussain told *Input*, referring to Skelton coming to her with the idea. "He brought me onboard with his enthusiasm." Skelton himself has some regrets about the whole thing. "I don’t blame the people who thought it was real," he told *Input*. That's partially because it really started to escalate. "People flooded my Instagram with comments asking if I was real — and also my girlfriend’s Instagram, letting her know that I was in fact a robot," he added. But at the end of the day, Skelton thinks it was all fair game. "The goal was never to trick people," Skelton told *Input*. "They did that to themselves." **READ MORE:** [How one TikToker convinced folks he was an AI-generated character]() \[*Input*\] ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()