Pope Francis' AI generated images in snow-white puffer jacket go viral

Pope Francis is currently breaking the internet with his swagger by donning a white puffer jacket and a considerably large holy crucifix. Several images of the leader of the Catholic Church in the said attire are going viral, the only thing is that the pictures are fake. The viral images have been created using artificial intelligence (AI) by Midjourney, which generates images using text-based instructions. 

Pope Francis gets a makeover

Several Twitter users shared Pope Francis' fake image using the AI tool Midjourney after it went viral on Reddit. Notably, this comes after fake pictures of former US President Donald Trump's arrest were circulated online. Those too were made using Midjourney by Eliot Higgins, founder of Bellingcat which does investigative journalism. According to UK-based The i news, Higgins has been banned from using Midjourney because his creation led to others sharing Trump's fake images without clarification, causing a misinformation campaign.

Meanwhile, experts are now expressing their concern over such AI tools that can be used to generate such fake images within seconds and spread misinformation. Considering how easily these tools are accessible, one AI expert told The i news that they can even be used to document fake war crimes amid the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict. Besides Trump, arrest pictures of Russian President Vladimir Putin are also doing rounds on social media.