In a world of deepfakes, it’s not uncommon to see videos of famous celebrities saying or doing things that the real celebrity did not say or do. Stories also abound of individuals turning to AI companions for support, company, and even raunchy love affairs (Hill, 2025). Until recently, such uses of AI were the stuff of Hollywood sci-fi—whether the replicants that Harrison Ford hunts in Blade Runner (1982), the loving robot child played by Haley Joel Osment in AI: Artificial Intelligence (2001), or the AI operating system voiced by Scarlett Johansson in Her (2013). But as synthetic humans on video screens (thankfully not yet in real life) become increasingly common and sophisticated, the line between sci-fi and reality has begun to blur. Given that some in higher education have already started using AI to create both the content of educational videos and to deliver them, this is a good time for us to ask whether students can tell an AI actor from a real one and how the use of AI actors can influence learning.
