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ARTIFICIAL intelligence researchers have made new 'deepfakes' videos that put Donald Trump in the role of the monster from the 1974 Mel Brooks film, Young Frankenstein.

Commemorating Halloween, the AI technology they used learned how to create new images of the US President's face by being fed thousands of existing pictures of him.

 The AI used to make the videos was trained on around 3,000 images of Donald Trump
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The AI used to make the videos was trained on around 3,000 images of Donald TrumpCredit: How to Generate (Almost) Anything

Comprised of researchers and students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the How to Generate (Almost) Anything project focuses on using artificial intelligence (AI) to create everything from to .

To mark Hallloween and to also demonstrate the growing power of AI, they've now inserted Donald Trump's face into two classic horror films.

They've done this by using 'deepfakes' technology, which uses AI to learn how to synthesise new images on the basis of existing pictures and video.

By using 3,000 photos of Donald Trump and working in collaboration with deepfakes expert , they were able to insert the American President into a number of scenes from Young Frankenstein and Hocus Pocus.

 A shot from the faked version of Hocus Pocus featuring Donald Trump as a substitute for Bette Midler
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A shot from the faked version of Hocus Pocus featuring Donald Trump as a substitute for Bette MidlerCredit: How to Generate (Almost) Anything

As the clip above shows, the results are suitably ghoulish, with a realistic-looking 'Trumpenstein' being brought to life by Gene Wilder's character.

Featuring Trump's recognisably deadpan stare, the monster then goes on to receive soup in a bowl, before emitting a loud, tortured whine.

AI researchers make SCARY Halloween-themed 'deepfakes' video of Donald Trump as Winifred from Hocus Pocus

Less or possibly more disturbing (depending on your viewpoint), a second clip shows Trump replacing Bette Midler in 1993's Hocus Pocus.

Here, he even speaks, and it's a testament to the sophistication of AI technology that he smiles and moves his lips convincingly while still being recognisable as the 45th US President.

 One popular (and amusing) use of deepfakes is to put Nicholas Cage into nearly every popular film ever made, including Dr. No (above)
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One popular (and amusing) use of deepfakes is to put Nicholas Cage into nearly every popular film ever made, including Dr. No (above)

Such clips follow in the wake of similar AI-based deepfakes, which have made headlines over the past year mostly for doctoring porn videos so that it looks as though famous celebrities (e.g. Emma Watson and Scarlett Johansson) are performing in them.

In fact, the problem got so bad this year that, in February, Pornhub, Reddit and Twitter all  deepfakes from their sites.

 A shot from a deepfake video of Barack Obama, produced by BuzzFeed in April to highlight the dangers of fake news and deepfakes
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A shot from a deepfake video of Barack Obama, produced by BuzzFeed in April to highlight the dangers of fake news and deepfakesCredit: BuzzFeedVideo

But perhaps a bigger worry is the possibility of deepfakes technology being used to create fake news, something which the How to Generate (Almost) Anything team agrees could be problematic.

"Even though we are interested in using deepfakes for entertainment industries, it is certainly possible to use it for malicious purposes," says Pinar Yanardag, the founder of the project and a postdoctoral associate at MIT's Media Lab.

However, while it's now possible to put Donald Trump, Barack Obama or Theresa May in videos and make them say things they've never really said, Yanardag believes research will remain one step ahead of fraudsters.

"Deepfakes technology is getting better and better at faking the content, but researchers are also coming up with new ways to ‘detect’ fakes. So I don’t think there will ever be a time (at least in [the] near future) where somebody will create a deepfakes video where nobody detects that it is [a] forgery."

Still, while the dangers posed by deepfakes tech are real, there could be entertainment-based benefits.

Yanardag tells the Sun, "Of course, the possibility of featuring dead actors (or featuring an actor’s younger self) is calling for huge opportunities. For instance, can there be a commercial face-market where you merely just shop for actors’ faces to use in your movies?"

What do you think about the Donald Trump videos? Let us know in the comments.


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AI researchers make SCARY Halloween-themed 'deepfakes' video of Donald Trump as Frankenstein
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