Deepfakes of celebrities such as Taylor Swift, Ice Spice, Drake, and even the late Queen Elizabeth are teaching math to kids in viral TikTok videos.
According to a report by CBC, popular content creators on TikTok are using AI to manipulate the likeness of famous figures to explain theories in mathematic, physics, and engineering.
In a TikTok video posted by @onlocklearning, which has amassed over 10 million views, a deepfake of rapper @Ice Spice explains logarithmic functions.
‘I Learned Something in One Minute’
In the videos, @onlocklearning does provide a disclaimer to let social media users know that the celebrities in these educational clips are AI-generated.
“This is not real audio/video of Drake or Queen Elizabeth II. All video and speech was computer generated to help others learn about math, physics, and engineering,” @onlocklearning writes in the caption for a video of the rapper and the late monarch explaining trigonometry.
And according to the comments on the platform, it appears that these celebrity deepfakes are genuinely helping young viewers understand mathematical theories.
“I learned something in one minute [that] my teacher would have taken a whole class or two to teach us,” a TikTok user comments.
Another viewer writes: “This taught me what my teacher couldn’t teach in six months.”
‘How Much Do They Really Learn From These Deepfakes?’
However, CBC reports that while the deepfakes of such celebrities have the potential to draw students to a subject, educational psychologists see a possible risk developing through deepfake lessons if those who see the images on TikTok start to trust or develop relationships with the AI portrayals themselves.
Furthermore, while the emerging trend of AI deepfake lessons can be an effective supplementary tool to draw students’ interests — particularly individuals who face learning barriers in their education — some experts are concerned at the surface-level nature of these videos.
“It may draw in others that have not necessarily felt that they belonged in mathematics,” Krista Muis, a professor at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, tells CBC.
“They may pay attention to these for a very short period of time, but the question is how much do they really learn from these? Does this really promote deep learning?”
