Fans left heartbroken after discovering the truth behind beloved viral TikTok account
Thanks, day ruined
Featured Image Credit: TikTok / Basin Creek Retirement
While we're all here for the odd bit of fun with artificial intelligence, and it's sometimes easy to spot one of the more outlandish creations, it's getting increasingly hard to determine what's real and what's been created by an LLM.
Everyone can have a laugh at viral videos of Donald Trump sucking Elon Musk's toes, although it got a little less funny for many when the POTUS made an AI cartoon of him dumping feces on protestors from a. fighter jet.
There's also been a lot of confusion surrounding the infamous Celina 52 Truck Stop, one radio station came under fire for using an AI host, and a supposed AI expert proved how easy it is to fake some very real-looking footage.
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An even darker side of the artificial intelligence boom included one man facing major fines after he deepfaked images of prominent women into compromising situations. While there's plenty of advice on how to spot these AI fakes, it feels somewhat out of date as we've come such a long way from the days of a janky Will Smith trying to gobble down bowls of spaghetti.
TikTok has become an AI minefield, with users heartbroken to learn one of their favorite accounts isn't the real deal. As reported by Dexerto, the viral Basin Creek Retirement has been lulling us into a false sense of security and plucking at our heartstrings with its depiction of happy elderly residents.
Boasting 63.6K followers and over 5.4 million likes, Basin Creek Retirement looks like an idyllic care home where we wouldn't mind spending our twilight years. You can watch carers chatting to Doris about the clocks going back, there's Mr. Denning being dressed as a deviled egg for Halloween, Mr. Kisster referring to himself as 'The Rizzler', and some adorable advice from Betsy about sleeping on your problems and to make them hopefully feel smaller in the morning.
Sadly, before you go rushing for your wallets in hopes of adopting a grandpa or grandma, the official Basin Creek Retirement account makes it clear that this seemingly magical place is a work of fiction.
Some might've clocked that the audio has some of that signature AI distortion, but for casual scrollers, they thought Basin Creek was a real place.
The site explains: "Basin Creek isn’t a real place — but we like to think it could be. Every story we share and every joke we tell is crafted by humans, with heart, care, and a deep love for making people smile.”
Defending the use of AI video generation, the Basin Creek creators add: "Much like animation or visual effects help filmmakers imagine new worlds."
Reminding us that it exists purely for 'entertainment and creative expression', they tell us "there’s still plenty left in the world to laugh about."
Complaining about having their dreams shattered, one person wrote: "Learning this is AI hurt."
Another added: "The amount of people that don’t realize this is Ai is truly concerning."
A third shared their rage by referring to it as 'AI slop'. Others still saw the sweeter side of it, with one person writing: "Might be ai but give it a few years and I’ll make the same video for real for all to enjoy."
Even the most savvy of scrollers can be easily fooled, but as AI continues to evolve at breakneck speed, expect to have our heartstrings tugged by more AI creations before too long.