I once made a video in which the Starship Enterprise flew into downtown Greenville, paused for a moment, then swooshed away.

Or so it seemed.

Another time, while waiting for the Greenville County School Board to come out from a marathon “executive session,” I made a video in which it appeared that a gigantic boulder came crashing through the ceiling, smashed the empty podium and left it a smoking ruin.

I was bored.

Both of those, I made with an app on my phone.

They looked pretty realistic, but everyone knew they were faked.

My friends on Facebook got a laugh out of them.

Digital trickery, though, has made a quantum leap since then.

We have entered the era of “deepfakes.”

Have you heard about this? It is now possible — through the magic of artificial intelligence — to

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