A deepfake is media created or edited with AI so that it convincingly shows a real person’s face or voice doing something that did not happen. The name combines “deep learning”, the kind of AI used, with “fake”. It covers face-swapped videos, cloned voices on the phone and realistic still images.
Deepfakes are used in fraud, harassment and political disinformation, as well as in films and satire. In October 2026 INTERPOL warned that AI tools can now “convincingly reproduce the face or voice of a real person”, and the FBI warned of AI impersonation in US election scams. Both advise checking a request through a channel you already trust.