this is "nightline." >> tonight, the dangers of deepfake. >> playing sports. >> how a tom cruise imposter came to be. manipulated videos with real-life consequences. >> i didn't know it wasn't real, i don't do that. >> the rise and risks of the high-tech handiwork. >> people are always scared of technology. we have to learn how to handle this. >> can you spot the fake? >> on behalf of your queen -- tiktok renegade. ♪ renegade renegade ♪ >> once it went to tiktok, it went viral from there. >> from up-and-coming stars to stage dancers shut out by the

pandemic. >> what has happened? >> i posted it and three hours later it had a million views. and i was like, oh, i get it now. >> moving to new heights on the platform. does scrubbing grease feel like a workout? scrub less with dawn ultra it's superior grease-cleaning formula gets to work faster, making easy work of tough messes dawn takes care of tough grease, wherever it shows up. scrub less, save more...with dawn i don't like veggies... what?! ♪ whatever you have at home, knorr sides can turn nutritious veggies into mouthwatering meals. ♪ veggies taste amazing with knorr.

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i'm linsey davis. tonight, diving into the world of deep fakes. manipulated videos that can be passed off as the real thing. now some of those creators are sounding the alarm. is the technology getting too good? here's abc's matt gutman. >> boylestown, pennsylvania. 16-year-old mad din hyme is a cheerleader here, a sport where success can lead to major competitions and major scholarship opportunities. but any future in the sport was put in jeopardy by this video. this is a deep fake. a digitally manipulated fake video showing madeline smoking a vape, which authorities say she never did. >> i went in the car and started crying, that's not me, because i thought if i said it that no one would believe me. because obviously there's proof, it's a video. but the video was obviously manipulated. >> reporter: the video was allegedly sent to madeline's

cheer coaches to get her in trouble. she isn't alone. two teammates were also victims of deep fake photos and videos, videos that make the three girls appear to be naked, drinking, smoking. all of them sent to their cheer coaches. >> i knew it wasn't real because i don't do that. >> it was hard because we didn't know who it was, who was doing this, probably what scared me the most. >> reporter: the alleged suspect according to this criminal complaint, a cheerleader's rival mom from madeline's cheerleading squad, raffaele ainella, charged with three counts of cyber harassment of a child and three counts of harassment. she is denied all charges. >> the essence was to knock them down, to make them appear they were not law-abiding, that their morals were corrupted. essentially to try to shame them or get them knocked off the team would appear to be the motivation. >> reporter: this small-city cheer rivalry may have gotten

out of hand but it only begins to skim the surface of how dangerous deep fake videos can be in the wrong hands. >> we as technologists have to take more responsibility for the technology we are developing and unleashing on the world. >> reporter: like this video. it shows the dangers of deep fake technology by manipulating world leaders into saying what the creators wanted them to say. >> it's not hard for democracy to collapse. >> it's essentially a detective game. you're given an image, a video, an audio, you're asked to determine if it's authentic. this happens on a daily basis now. >> reporter: experts say women are subject to the majority of deep fake crimes when their faces are edited into pornographic content. >> probably the most damaging deep fakes are ones that you and i have not seen. those are in the form of nonconsensual pornography. i suspect it's a matter of time before we start seeing the entryway of deep fakes into the political arena as well. >> reporter: big hollywood studios have taken advantage of deep fake technology for films.

the "star wars" franchise using it to complete "the rise of skywalker" after carrie fisher died before its completion. >> this mission is everything, we cannot fail. >> i expected amy to win. >> reporter: it's not just the big screen. the most popular videos have gone viral on social media. >> i would never say these things. >> reporter: from former president obama to the queen. >> on behalf of myself, your queen, and all at channel 4 -- >> reporter: to spider-man. >> we have to shut it down. >> reporter: with technology developing enough for individual graphic artists to be able to create videos so realistic, it's hard not to believe your eyes. >> what's up, tiktok? >> reporter: like this tiktok. >> cool if i play some sorts? >> reporter: a day on the golf course for the "top gun" star, except this is not tom cruise's tiktok, and this is not tom cruise. but an eerily uncanny recreation by this guy.

>> i'm chris umay, i live in belgium, i'm 31 years old, and i'm an a.i. specialist and fx artist as well. >> reporter: his videos of not tom cruise have been viewed millions of times online. >> we sell videos that look like tom cruise doing silly things. playing golf, eating a lollipop. some people enjoyed those and they went viral all over the world. to create something like this, it's not easy. because on one hand, you need a professional actor. on the other hand, you have me. i'm a deep fake specialist. i've been doing effects for years. >> this is a five-second impression of a snapping turtle coming out of its shell. >> but this is an entirely dier people are always scared of technology. we have to learn how to handle this stuff. we have to learn how to find confirmed sources to make sure the authenticity of those videos, that it's real.

>> reporter: in los angeles, i meet hal lee, punk rock on the outside, hard-core tech guru on the inside. and an expert in the art of deep fake technology. basically, deep fakes, creating avatars. >> right. >> been around for a while. the technology of deep fakes is not absolutely new? >> so deep fakes came out around late 2017, but the idea for the path of creating a digital human has existed in visual texts for awhile. really the technology behind has become mature so that it's possible for any person to create these kind of content. >> reporter: hal has been considered one of the best deep fake artists in the world. what are the positive applications of a deep fake type thing? >> there isn't much of positive application from my point of view. i think the core technology itself, which is deep models,

technology that generates imageries is a fundamental component for many applications that i think is important. >> reporter: the message sometimes needs to be seen to be heard. at his artificial intelligence startup, pinscreen, hal and his team have put together high-level technology that creates deep fakes in realtime. >> we treated it to show it's possible to do convincing deep fakes but also in realtime and swap it to anyone you want. >> reporter: with a program they built, hal han turn his researcher into will smith or leonardo dicaprio or theresa may, instantly, and with frightening accuracy. at what point do we get to that event horizon where it's too perfect and anybody can fake anybody? >> we're not too far away from it, first of all. i think it's technologically already possible to create perfect ones. >> as he turns his head, you can see that his ear looks different than tom cruise. >> reporter: this is where hani

fareed comes in. >> i'm one of the world's leading experts in detecting deep fakes. >> reporter: in berkeley, the beating heart of california's tech empire, hani has become a digital watchdog for the a.i. age. >> we see the evolution of digital technology. starts off slow, clunky, expensive. every 18 months or so, it gets twice as good, twice as cheap, twice as fast. deep fakes has been that on steroids. the resolution has gotten better, the quality has gotten better, it's gotten more compelling, more sophisticated. the important part, it's more democratized. more and more people can create these deep fakes. >> reporter: in order to keep ahead, hani develops innovative techniques to stay one step in front of the fakes. a cyber sherlock holmes, if you will. gum shoeing his way through the internet. >> when we talk, our mandible, the jawbone, is connected to the ear. so when i talk, you can actually

see movement in my ear. we look at behavioral patterns, how you move your head when you speak, how i raise my eyebrows when i want to emphasize something. we tend to look at things that unfold over time. but look, a year from now is hal going to be better at synthesizing full-blown said i don't sequences versus images? probably. okay, we'll have to move on to the next thing and the next thing and the next thing. it's always a moving target. >> reporter: it's a high-level game of cat and mouse played with our very identities. but in today's world where technology once reserved to the few is available now to the many, experts like hal and hani can't keep their eyes shut for too long. >> what's your nightmare scenario for a deep fake? >> i think i'll be really creeped out if one day i have a zoom meeting, suddenly someone turns out to be not the person i'm talking to, and i'm completely fooled. >> i am absolutely sure that in the game of forensic scientist forger, i am going to lose.

i'm almost sure of that. here's what i also know. i will lose, but i will make it increasingly more difficult for somebody to create a flawless fake. >> reporter: for "nightline," i'm matt gutman in los angeles. coming up, the pandemic is forcing these young stars off the stage, now finding fame and fortune on tiktok. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ (quiet piano music) ♪ ♪ comfort in the extreme. the lincoln family of luxury suvs. microban 24 doesn't just sanitize and stop. it keeps killing bacteria for 24 hours.

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uncertain futures, including performers once earning a living dancing on stage. now shuffling to new opportunities on another platform. here's "nightline's" ashan singh. ♪ >> reporter: for devin santiago, dancing professionally was always the dream. >> it was the stage, the lighting, the music, the crowd reacting to the performing. i wanted to tour and travel the world and do music videos. >> reporter: the new jersey native and dance teacher had hoped 2020 would be a springboard for the next step in his career. >> i went back to college, and i wanted to be in the entertainment industry, hopefully being able to network, but also meet other people that can help push me there as well. >> reporter: but 18 years of dancing came to a screeching halt last march. the studio doors closednd santiago had no paycheck coming in from his classes.

>> you have all this pent-up energy and anger or whatever it is that the world turned into now. and i felt like i became stagnant because everything was just shut down. >> reporter: the live entertainment industry has suffered at an unprecedented rate from the pandemic. the global live events industry losing more than $30 billion in 2020. the industry only selling 25 million tickets in the united states, one-quarter of the sales of the previous year. this plummet in sales putting livelihoods in jeopardy and dreams on hold. forcing many professional dancers across the nation to turn to tiktok. the platform has experienced an explosion of growth. the app for quirky choreo and dance trends surpassing 2 billion downloads in 2020. with it propelling 50-second stars to trend-setting fame. how does the world know who yeah leia harman is?

>> because of the viral dance i made. i made a dance at home. doing my own thing, making dances how i normally do. once it went to tiktok it went viral. >> reporter: creating the "renegade" dance catapulting the train dance to stardom. tick tom fame created opportunities like performing at the 2020 nba all-star game. now most recently a professional choreographer. for the movie "scoob" to create the scoob dance challenge. the key ingredient? being her 15-year-old authentic self in every video. >> this is hard. this is not easy. is it hard to come up with these new dances, to stay relevant in the algorithm, or does it come naturally to you? >> it comes naturally to me. >> reporter: jalea says dancing on the app and performing on stage are worlds apart. >> there's a difference between tiktok dancing and real, professional dancing.

because tiktok is like, it's just fun. professional dancing, you have to fight. you perform on stages, you do concerts. >> reporter: dance pros have spent the past year catching on, trying to get a slice of that lucrative influencer pie. the paychecks and opportunities that go along with it, too. los angeles-based entertainer dexter mayfield had his breakout moment dancing for taylor swift at the 2019 vmas. when he posted to tiktok on the heels of that performance, he got his first taste. >> on sunday morning i posted it, three hours later it had a million views. oh, i get it now. >> reporter: at the time, he was still relying on a paycheck from his job dancing for a cruise line. >> prepandemic, life was really good.

it's a fantastic disco fantasy. >> reporter: then when the cruise line industry sidelined by the pandemic -- >> i was like, okay, this is our new normal. let's figure it out. let's get back to work. >> reporter: dexter ramped up, posting content. tiktok becoming his lifeline. >> the work has been able to get me throughout this pandemic and just knowing that you can be your authentic self and that will be enough. ♪ >> reporter: now with a following of more than 500,000 people, opportunities are on the rise. dexter recently appearing in one of rihanna's savage fenty shows. >> the opportunities are endless. whatever space you want to exist in, if you just put it out there, it can be. >> three, four, five, six -- >> reporter: in new jersey, devin is also seeing tiktok as the path to the dance future. ♪ known for his viral dance "seven rings," he doubled down on his

tiktok'ing during the shutdowns after his second home, his dance studio planet dance, closed. >> i utilize tiktok even more. i can really use tiktok and just spend all my time on it. just put all my energy into it. >> reporter: before he knew it, deals started pouring in. partnering with brands like panera bread. ♪ panera pizza ♪ >> how much can a dancer make on tiktok? >> it's definitely possible to keep a roof over your head. if you are building up your page and you are posting constantly and your videos are going viral and you're having ads reach out to you, it's definitely possible to live off of. >> reporter: devin's dance studio as reopened with smaller class sizes and his students have big plans, like their mentor. >> oh my god, tiktok famous. we wanted to be more, i don't know, like up to expectations. >> reporter: childhood dreams of making it on broadway and in

music videos replaced with visions of life as a tiktok superstar. >> tiktok is probably one of the biggest apps. and probably my future. >> do you have dreams of working, becoming a tiktok creative, tiktok influencer? >> yes. >> what do you hope your students take away from you? >> i hope i teach them to love themselves and to be goal driven, and that if they want something in life, they can go and grab it. because it's right at their fingertips. >> reporter: from part-time dance teacher to full-time idol, devin knows the money is good. it's also never been cooler to be a dancer. >> our thanks to ashan for that. next, reprising "my shot" for the vaccine revolution. ♪ the country in downtime and i'm not going to waste my shot ♪ ♪ who that girl ♪ ♪ it's outrageous how this flavour got em shook like ♪

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♪ finally tonight, president biden's goal of 100 million vaccines in 100 days is on track to be accomplished tomorrow, six weeks ahead of schedule.

♪ not going to waste my shot ♪ >> it's a while stone worth celebrating. these doctors know there's still a long way to go. ♪ it's the coronavirus it's covid-19 ♪ >> with help from the hit broadway show "hamilton," adapting the song "my shot" for this century, creating a wakeup call to arms to take a shot of hope. ♪ not gonna waste my not gonna waste my shot ♪ >> that's "nightline." watch all our episodes on hulu. we'll see you back here at the same time tomorrow. thanks so much for