Borkowski Media Trends: AI Deepfakes, 'Pro Gamer' Musk & MORE

Creators fleeing TikTok and finding refuge in Rednote and Chalamet’s Lime Bike Stunt

Fake it til you make it

AI celebrity deepfakes have become so normalised that Emma Watson trending on X over fake explicit images isn't covered by a single online news outlet. For celebrities as famous as Watson, it is such a common occurrence, that they've been forced to accept this trend is impossible to fight without support from intervening governments or stricter regulation from the social media platforms themselves.

But it was another viral AI deepfake that did hit the headlines when a woman was scammed out of €800K thinking she was in a relationship with Brad Pitt. While parts of the scam seemed plausible (all except for Brad Pitt smiling up from the operating table), the edited photos are a reminder that, in the wrong hands, a celebrity's image is so powerful that it can trick innocent people into doing things they normally wouldn’t.

And it wasn’t the only scam that went viral this week - scammers targeted Taylor Swift, exploiting her popularity by using AI-generated versions of her voice and image to promote a giveaway of luxury cookware by Le Creuset. Swift's team acted promptly, telling fans to purchase directly from the brand’s official website instead of engaging with the deepfake videos. Yet another example of how household-named figures can easily become targets for dangerous schemes that damage trust and authenticity, a commodity as valuable as ever before.

These examples demonstrate the importance of staying ahead of potential misinformation. Those in the public eye must monitor trends to stay aware of possible harmful content that bad actors can spread. If these fake images continue to cause crises, safeguards won't be able to catch up with the nefarious technology developing that can create lasting damage to both the victims and the most established personal brands.

When the internet calls your bluff

There's something very funny brewing on the internet at the moment. No, we're not doing a Traitors meme deep-dive and we’re covering Timothée Chalamet's £65 lime bike fine later…

It turns out Elon Musk has been lying about how good he is at video games. Yes, the world's richest 53-year-old man wants everyone to believe that while he runs major companies like X, SpaceX, and Tesla, he not only has a god-given natural ability as a gamer, but he also has one of the strongest accounts in the popular game Path of Exile 2.

Musk began cultivating the image that he's a gifted gamer a few months ago, most notably in an interview with Joe Rogan, claiming he's one of the world's best Diablo IV players. He received little pushback for such an outlandish claim, likely due to the esoteric nature of the subject matter. He decided to push this further by claiming he had a level 95 hardcore character on Paths of Exile 2 (which would make him one of the world's best players).

While he may have correctly assessed the vast majority of the human race wouldn't know what that meant, he foolishly pushed his luck by streaming himself playing the game for around an hour. It didn't take long for experts to notice he was making some fundamental errors - something one of the 'world's best' wouldn't make.

While we can get into the weeds of this saga, it is more worthwhile to comment on the mindset of characters like Musk and their approach to personal brand management. You'd imagine he would've likely anticipated none of the hardcore gamers would've believed he'd have the time to compete and thrive in this incredibly competitive field. These games require an individual's sole focus; part-timing these endeavours will never be enough to compete with the best. But for Musk, criticism from this section of people clearly wasn't deemed a risk.

This is assuming Musk put in this much thought. It is more likely that Musk thinks people are dumb enough to believe he is superhuman and back his own ability to weasel his way out of any potential criticism. It is yet another case study that when it comes to reputation management, you have the option to double down and hope the problem goes away. At this point, Musk has certainly done irreparable damage to his reputation, and this will likely be a drop in the ocean. But when momentum is no longer on Musk's side, the true extent of all these own goals will undoubtedly return to haunt him.

Rednote rises while Meta stumbles

With a TikTok ban in the U.S. looming ever closer, its loyal users are already packing their digital bags and setting off for Rednote. The Chinese social media app has been quietly carving out its niche, and it’s now positioned to become the go-to haven for creators and trendsetters. Meanwhile, at Meta HQ, Mark Zuckerberg’s attempts to woo TikTok’s displaced audience to Instagram Reels and Threads are proving less than successful, reminiscent of a dance challenge that didn’t quite stick the landing. 

Meta’s problem is its platforms feel tired. The highly curated, ad-heavy vibe of corporate America’s social media offerings is losing its charm. Combine that with Meta’s declining stock prices and the perception that the company has peaked creatively, and it’s easy to see why users are flocking to Rednote. The platform, also known as Xiaohongshu, stands apart from U.S. social media by retaining the unpolished vibrancy of a grassroots movement and, for now at least, offering a refreshingly uncommercialised experience.

Rednote has become a hot topic on TikTok itself, with users actively discussing their migration to the app. Many see the shift as an act of defiance against government overreach and a way to preserve their online communities in the face of upheaval. The hashtag #TikTokRefugee has gained traction, peppered with memes, humour, and some nervous jokes about their data ending up in the hands of the Chinese government.

For those who’ve made the leap, the experience has been both eye-opening and collaborative. Chinese users on Rednote have stepped up to guide newcomers through the platform, fostering a rare sense of global camaraderie. And perhaps most ironically, many Americans are finding themselves in deep conversations with Chinese users about censorship and free speech, conversations they likely wouldn’t have had otherwise.

Of course, critics are already raising concerns about Rednote’s ties to the Chinese government and its data policies, and some sceptics question the practicality of migrating to another Chinese-owned app that could face similar challenges in the U.S. But for now, its authenticity and cultural exchange are resonating deeply with users tired of Meta’s polished dystopia.

The big question? Can Rednote maintain its renegade charm while the U.S. and China wrestle over the digital sphere? As for Zuckerberg, this battle appears to have slipped through his fingers, though there is no doubt he’ll be back with a Plan B.

Pedalling Nonsense? Chalamet’s Lime Bike Stunt

If anyone was wondering how Gen Z’s superstars might interpret rebellious rock’n’roll Hollywood excess, a timely demonstration came this week from Timothee Chalamet, who turned up to the premiere of A Complete Unknown – the biopic in which he stars as Bob Dylan- on a Lime Bike.

There’s no suggestion that this was a carefully stage-managed declaration of personality from Chalamet, but given his A-List status, it’s very unlikely that he had to take the bike and therefore probably fair to assume it was at the very least an affectation of hipster insouciance. Whilst citing his choice of transport as ‘ecological’, Chalamet also attempted to imbue some rebellious spirit into his cooky escapade by claiming that he received a £65 fine for his troubles – although the Guardian has so far been unable to track down the source.

Where Marlon Brando, James Dean and Steve McQueen helped make motorbikes a macho tenet of Hollywood folklore, tenuously claiming to have received a relatively small fine for parking an e-bike slightly out of a return zone may only have cemented Chalamet’s status as a leading man for the era of the “tofu-eating wokerati”.

But whilst the exercise may not have been a roaring PR success for Chalamet, the free exposure for Lime Bikes (replete with such key messaging as their innate London-ness, their manoeuvrability on the red carpet and the reasonableness of their fines system) will not have done their rental numbers any harm.