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

Pope Francis Jacket suit in the mood today 😎 pic.twitter.com/r22SWY9COC

— NO_BRAINER🇷🇼 (@kanisekere) March 25, 2023

Enjoy endless Balenciaga popes (not original author, I reverse-prompted):

/imagine AP news photo, Pope Francis wearing a balenciaga puffer jacket, daytime --ar 7:10 --q 2 --v 5 pic.twitter.com/WJwSRxzEtx

— Andrea Ciulu (@andrea_ciulu) March 26, 2023

Pope Francis using a big white puffer jacket in the Vatican City, noon light, screen space Global illumination, lumen reflections, space Reflections, diffraction grading, chromatic aberration, ambient occlusion, realistic photograph, --v 5 pic.twitter.com/MziPKpRsyf

— El Malaguero (@ElMalaguero) March 25, 2023

Here's my Midjourney pope image with this prompt:

"medium-full shot of pope francis wearing puffer jacket, walking on the street, natural afternoon light, shot on Agfa Vista 200, side-angle view, 4k --ar 16:9 --stylize 1000 --v 5" pic.twitter.com/XrdcMVLoqI

— Peter Yang (@petergyang) March 26, 2023

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.

Making pictures of Trump getting arrested while waiting for Trump's arrest. pic.twitter.com/4D2QQfUpLZ

— Eliot Higgins (@EliotHiggins) March 20, 2023

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. 

After the AI pics of Trump's arrest got many people too excited the neural network "Midjourney" banned the generation of pictures with the words “arrest" and “prison”. Somebody figured out that synonyms of these words are not yet banned and generated some with Putin. Enjoy. pic.twitter.com/n3l1YiBDWM

— Terrorussia (@putinslies) March 27, 2023