AI-generated images of Pope Francis wearing a white puffer jacket, created using Midjourney AI software, went viral on social media and fooled millions of people into believing they were real photographs.
In March 2023, a user named 'skyferrori' used Midjourney v5 image synthesis software to create fake photos of Pope Francis wearing a white puffer jacket and posted them on Twitter. The images quickly went viral, accumulating over 197,000 likes and 28.1 million views. The fake images were first posted on the r/Midjourney subreddit on Friday, March 24 under the headline 'The Pope Drip.' Many people online were fooled into thinking the images were real photographs, despite some visual inconsistencies like distorted hands and overly sharp skin appearance. The incident was notable for being one of the first AI-generated images to fool a large online audience. Pope Francis himself later acknowledged being a victim of deepfakes in a January 2024 message for World Communications Day, warning about the 'perverse' dangers of AI-generated fake content. The incident highlighted growing concerns about the ability of AI image generators to create convincing fake content that can mislead the public and undermine trust in visual media.
Domain classification, causal taxonomy, severity scores, and national security assessments were LLM-classified and may contain errors.
AI systems that inadvertently generate or spread incorrect or deceptive information, which can lead to inaccurate beliefs in users and undermine their autonomy. Humans that make decisions based on false beliefs can experience physical, emotional or material harms
AI system
Due to a decision or action made by an AI system
Intentional
Due to an expected outcome from pursuing a goal
Post-deployment
Occurring after the AI model has been trained and deployed