Speaking at the 58th World Day of Social Communications, Pope Francis urged the world to be careful in its use and consumption of AI. The Pope warned the faithful of how AI abuse can spread disinformation via images and speech.

We need but think of the long-standing problem of disinformation in the form of fake news, which today can employ ‘deepfakes,’ namely the creation and diffusion of images that appear perfectly plausible but false (I too have been an object of this).

Pope Francis

The Puffy Coat

Last March, a Twitter user named skyferrori posted a Midjourney generated image of Pope Francis wearing a white puffy coat with a cross dangling around his neck. The Internet went wild, of course, and many around the world wondered if the picture was real.

OKAAYYY pic.twitter.com/MliHsksX7L

— leon (@skyferrori) March 25, 2023

The World Is Not Real

Today’s AI tools can do more than generate holier than thou threads modeled by the Pope. Last week, a high school principal in a Baltimore County school faced scandal after a recording of him shouting disparaging remarks about minority students and administrators at his school hit the Internet.

The recording caused more than the usual scandal of someone being caught on a hot mic. As soon as the recording hit the news cycle doubts about its authenticity surfaced. The principal defended himself saying it was generated by AI. The real problem is, who knows? Those who abuse Generative AI are frequently creating a world that’s unbelievable.

On the surface, generated pictures of a public figure like the Pope wearing Versace seem cute. But now that everyone’s voice, face, and mannerisms can be capture in shockingly high resolution detail by an iPhone and remixed by Midjourney and Stable Diffusion to create deepfakes is scary.

With politicians exhibiting rampancy and low-profile people claiming AI was the culprit for all of their misdeeds makes it hard for people to discern between what’s real and what’s fake.

And that’s a scary world to live in.