So far, 2023 is shaping up as the year of artificial intelligence. All us luddites have been schooled on the many wonders of our robotic friends, from their essay writing skills to their ability to draw cartoonish-looking women in bikinis. Every major tech company seems to be releasing their own version of the golden child of AI chatbots, Chat GPT, with varying degrees of success (RIP unhinged, threatening version of Bing Chat's Sydney).
The fun doesn't stop there, as proven by a recent, inescapable TikTok trend. Deepfakes are a type of AI that have been extensively memed already, such as with the cursed singalong facemorphs provided by Wombo. Recent times have seen advancements in these kinds of technology, allowing memers to discover that certain AI tools do great impressions of famous politicians. Their response? They're making videos of them gaming together.
Barack Obama might have confessed that he's not very good at video games, but that hasn't stopped his deepfake counterpart from donning a headset with Joe Biden and Donald Trump. The unlikely trio are pictured playing titles like Black Ops 3, Overwatch 2, Final Fantasy 14, and most popularly, Minecraft. They brag about their prowess and insult each other in typically offensive gamer fashion, entertaining legions of TikTokers the world over.
They may be swapping politics for video games, but they still (kind of) reference real life. Biden fails to beat the Sleepy Joe allegations, Obama gets mocked for his drone bombing habit, and Trump is just as arrogant you'd expect him to be if this was real. There are also occasional guest stars, including a beleaguered Hilary Clinton, or Ben Shapiro somehow siding with the Democrats to help blow up Trump's Minecraft mansion.
However, the stars of the show will always be our three most recent presidents, who have prompted countless spinoff accounts dedicated to them slinging insults in their server. They've made it so big that one video even shows them as guests on the AI Joe Rogan Experience, discussing their second shot at fame. If you've ever wanted to see any of these men swear like a fourteen-year-old in their mom's basement, you're in for a treat. It's hard to worry about the scarier implications of deepfake technology when you're watching them grief each other.