A look at Metaphysic, a company which uses deepfake tech to create ads and restore old film; its founder went viral on TikTok for deepfaking Tom Cruise
Rachel Metz / CNN :
Context & Ripple Effects
The viral deeptomcruise TikTok account was the marketing moment; this CNN profile shows what it was selling. Metaphysic is turning synthetic likeness work into two revenue lines — ad production and old-film restoration — following the playbook Synthesia set when it framed deepfakes as corporate-friendly training video.
The economics that make this viable were visible early: a hobbyist demonstrated the core tech could be replicated for $552 over two weeks with Faceswap, so Metaphysic's edge has to be craft and client access rather than exclusivity. It also rides a demand shift already underway — agencies turned to deepfake-style ads repurposing old footage when the pandemic halted filming.
First-order effects
- Metaphysic gains a commercial identity beyond the meme: brands get a vendor for synthetic-likeness ads, and film archives get a restoration service built on the same face-swap tooling.
- TikTok's role shifts from accidental distribution channel to provenance problem — the same virality that made deeptomcruise famous now attaches to a company selling the technique.
Second-order effects
- Ad agencies choosing between shooting talent and synthesizing likenesses pull pricing pressure toward whoever can produce convincing faces cheapest, and the WSJ's later reporting on celebrity deepfakes used in ads with or without permission shows where that pressure lands: on likeness rights and consent questions Metaphysic's clients will have to answer.
- Synthesia-style corporate video vendors and Metaphysic-style entertainment vendors begin converging on the same buyer, forcing both to differentiate on licensing hygiene rather than raw model quality.
Third-order effects
- If synthesized likenesses become standard ad inventory, the industry needs a verification layer to tell licensed synthesis from fraud — which is exactly the gap later tools like Meta Video Seal's imperceptible watermarking address.
- The longer pattern points at formalized likeness licensing: celebrities' faces becoming contractually priced inputs, with platforms and regulators eventually demanding provenance for commercial synthetic media.
The trend: Synthetic media is moving from viral novelty to a priced production input, with trust and provenance infrastructure lagging one adoption cycle behind.