The photo of Pope Francis wearing a fashionable puffy jacket is a fake!

The photo of Pope Francis wearing a fashionable puffy jacket is a fake!

Jean Dubreil | Mar 29, 2023 2 minutes read 0 comments
 

The art created by the AI allowed anyone to create their own images, and this image is fake. Pablo, the creator of this image learned a lot from the fake pope and his puffy jacket, reminding us to be skeptical when we see something online.

If you've been online in the past few days, you might have seen a picture of Pope Francis wearing a stylish white puffer jacket. The picture of the 86-year-old sitting pope going viral is hard to ignore. The way the photo was taken made him look cool and like he had just stepped off a fashion runway. But this picture comes with a big caveat. It isn't true. It's a picture made by AI with the help of the art tool Midjourney. Many people were fooled by the picture because it looks so real. The way the fake Pope holds the cup in his right hand is one of the most subtle signs that the photo is fake. Human hands are notoriously hard for AI to draw, and this photo is no exception. But many people didn't notice that small detail. They didn't know it was fake until they found out it wasn't.


AI-made art has made it possible for anyone to make their own pictures. If they can tell us what they want through text prompts, we can make it. This picture is the same. Pablo Xavier is the name of the person who made it. He works as a builder in the Chicago area and is 31 years old. "I try to make funny or weird art—psychedelic art," he said about the picture. "Just now it occurred to me that I should do the Pope. Then it was like water: "The Pope in a Balenciaga puffy coat or a Moncler walking the streets of Rome or Paris."

On Friday, March 24, Pablo made the picture. He then posted it to a Facebook group called AI Art Universe and then to Reddit. By Saturday, it was getting more attention online. He couldn't believe how quickly the picture went viral. "I couldn't believe it," he said. "I didn't mean for it to go that way." He thought it was "definitely scary" that people thought the picture was real without asking if it was real. Pablo has learned a lot from this, especially about how these fake pictures can really hurt people. He said, "I didn't even think about that before." "It's going to get really bad if they the governments don't start making rules about it.

It's a good lesson for all of us to learn as AI keeps getting more and more involved in our daily lives. Digital literacy is something we have to learn and keep getting better at. The fake Pope and his puffy jacket are a good reminder that when you see something unbelievable online, it's best to be skeptical.

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