In recent days, an image of Pope Francis, with a white coat, better known as ‘puffer’, has gone viral on social media. The image, which was generated from an artificial intelligence (AI) program, was seen by millions of people and many even thought it was real.
To create the image, the Midjourney program was used, the same one that a few days ago was used by Eliot Higgins, director of Bellingcat, a website dedicated to investigative journalism, to generate images of a possible arrest of Donald Trump, former president of the United States United.
According to iNews, the image of the Pope was first shared on a Reddit page dedicated to artificial intelligence and was later republished on Twitter, where it went viral.
AI-generated image of Pope Francis goes viral on social media. pic.twitter.com/ebfLK4F850
— PopBase (@PopBase) March 25, 2023
Henry Ajder, an AI expert, said this type of technology has developed at “lightning speed” over the past year and shows no signs of slowing down, with the tools becoming “radically accessible” and easy to use.
“A good part of this image looks very good, especially at first glance, people might think that the Pope is really adopting the Italian fashion sense,” he said, quoted by the British newspaper, noting, however, that there are visible flaws that confirm that the image is fake, like Fransico’s right hand, which tries to grab a bottle of water.
Despite the flaws and the “plastic” quality of these images, Ajder warns that this is the type of issue that could be resolved in months or years, leading to people no longer being able to distinguish a real image from a fake one.
The specialist said that Midjourney is working on security restrictions, however, he warns that the situation could become a concern.
“Some of these images are already very, very difficult to determine if they are real or not. It gives us a sense of how malicious actors, agents who spread disinformation, can use these tools as weapons, mainly because some of the flaws of the current model begin to be trained and disappear”, he warned.
Daniel Jolley, an assistant professor at the University of Nottingham who specializes in disinformation, admitted he didn’t realize the Pope’s photo was fake when browsing Twitter.
“I genuinely laughed and thought what a strange thing for the Pope to wear, I didn’t even realize it was a fake. The photo is of very good quality – and that’s the danger of this kind of misinformation as it looks so good,” he confessed.
Looking at the ‘lighter’ side of the situation, users rushed to play with the image, with some describing him as a “rapper Pope”, who would open concerts for artists like Drake, or saying that the juice pontiff would be “boarding a Ryanair flight” and trying to “avoid additional baggage fees”.
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