Conan O'Brien revives his deepfake gag in video series

Back in the 1990s, comedian Conan O'Brien set the bar for deepfaking celebrities the old-fashioned way: by putting his lips on their face.

The popular gag got lots of laughs, but little did O'Brien know the skit would set him up to cash checks in 2026 as a spokesperson for U.S. cybersecurity company Adaptive Security.

O'Brien made a series of 15 training videos on cybersecurity awareness for Adaptive Security's employees and clients, launched Tuesday, with previews available on the company's website.

"I creeped out an entire nation," says O'Brien in the series intro video. "Back then, making a deepfake took hours. But today, AI can clone a person's voice and face in seconds."

O'Brien covers the pitfalls of AI-powered attacks, including deepfakes, voice cloning, and AI impersonation. He also reviews the bread and butter of corporate security training: email and SMS phishing, QR code scams, passwords, and in-office and remote work risks.

Adaptive Security wisely let O'Brien co-write the scripts and improvise on set, with the comedian using a fake mustache, dark lighting, and different camera angles to play "Joe," a nefarious scammer posing as an IT colleague.

Just hearing O'Brien say "Linux server" in a raspy voice is a reminder of how he's exactly the right man for the job.

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