Deepfake Pope Francis wears white puffa jacket
Occurred: March 2023
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A deepfake image of the Pope clad in a Belanciaga puffer jacket went viral on the internet, leading to commentary that the age of mass graphic misinformation and disinformation has arrived.
The image was a deepfake created by 'Pablo Xavier', a Chicago-based construction worker using the Midjourney image generator. Xavier said he came up with the idea after taking mushrooms.
According to media reports, many people believed the image was real. The incident persuaded Midjourney to stop free trials of its technology citing a massive influx of new users abusing free credits.
The images were rated 'Highly Suspicious' with 100 percent confidence by disinformation detection non-profit organisation TrueMedia.
System 🤖
Operator: Pablo Xavier
Developer: Midjourney
Country: USA; Global
Sector: Religion
Purpose: Entertain
Technology: Deepfake - image; Generative adversarial network (GAN); Neural network; Deep learning; Machine learning
Issue: Mis/disinformation; Ethics/values
Transparency: Governance; Black box
Fact check 🚩
Manipulation analysis ⚠️
TrueMedia. Highly suspicious
News, commentary, analysis 🗞️
https://www.gq.com/story/pope-puffer-jacket-midjourney-ai-meme
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/pope-francis-puffer-jacket-fake-photos-deepfake-power-peril-of-ai/
https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/fashion/pope-francis-ai-image-puffer-b2308159.html
https://www.ladbible.com/news/pope-white-puffer-jacket-photo-fake-ai-483407-20230327
Page info
Type: Incident
Published: April 2023
Last updated: April 2024