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Incident 510: Viral Image of Pope Francis in a Puffer Jacket Revealed to Be AI-Generated

Responded
Description: A viral image of Pope Francis wearing a white puffer jacket was a deepfake produced by the photorealistic-image-generator Midjourney.

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Entities

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Alleged: Midjourney developed an AI system deployed by Eliot Higgins, which harmed Pope Francis.

Incident Stats

Incident ID
510
Report Count
5
Incident Date
2023-03-24
Editors
Daniel Atherton
Applied Taxonomies
GMF, CSETv1, MIT

CSETv1 Taxonomy Classifications

Taxonomy Details

Incident Number

The number of the incident in the AI Incident Database.
 

510

Special Interest Intangible Harm

An assessment of whether a special interest intangible harm occurred. This assessment does not consider the context of the intangible harm, if an AI was involved, or if there is characterizable class or subgroup of harmed entities. It is also not assessing if an intangible harm occurred. It is only asking if a special interest intangible harm occurred.
 

yes

Date of Incident Year

The year in which the incident occurred. If there are multiple harms or occurrences of the incident, list the earliest. If a precise date is unavailable, but the available sources provide a basis for estimating the year, estimate. Otherwise, leave blank. Enter in the format of YYYY
 

2023

Date of Incident Month

The month in which the incident occurred. If there are multiple harms or occurrences of the incident, list the earliest. If a precise date is unavailable, but the available sources provide a basis for estimating the month, estimate. Otherwise, leave blank. Enter in the format of MM
 

03

Date of Incident Day

The day on which the incident occurred. If a precise date is unavailable, leave blank. Enter in the format of DD
 

Estimated Date

“Yes” if the data was estimated. “No” otherwise.
 

No

MIT Taxonomy Classifications

Machine-Classified
Taxonomy Details

Risk Subdomain

A further 23 subdomains create an accessible and understandable classification of hazards and harms associated with AI
 

3.1. False or misleading information

Risk Domain

The Domain Taxonomy of AI Risks classifies risks into seven AI risk domains: (1) Discrimination & toxicity, (2) Privacy & security, (3) Misinformation, (4) Malicious actors & misuse, (5) Human-computer interaction, (6) Socioeconomic & environmental harms, and (7) AI system safety, failures & limitations.
 
  1. Misinformation

Entity

Which, if any, entity is presented as the main cause of the risk
 

Human

Timing

The stage in the AI lifecycle at which the risk is presented as occurring
 

Post-deployment

Intent

Whether the risk is presented as occurring as an expected or unexpected outcome from pursuing a goal
 

Intentional

Incident Reports

Reports Timeline

+2
That Viral Image of the Swagged Out Pope Is an AI Fake, Dummies
+2
AI-generated puffy pontiff image inspires new warning from Pope Francis - Response
That Viral Image of the Swagged Out Pope Is an AI Fake, Dummies

That Viral Image of the Swagged Out Pope Is an AI Fake, Dummies

futurism.com

Fake photos of Pope Francis in a puffer jacket go viral, highlighting the power and peril of AI

Fake photos of Pope Francis in a puffer jacket go viral, highlighting the power and peril of AI

cbsnews.com

AI-generated puffy pontiff image inspires new warning from Pope Francis

AI-generated puffy pontiff image inspires new warning from Pope Francis

arstechnica.com

Pope Francis, victim of AI, warns against its 'perverse' dangers

Pope Francis, victim of AI, warns against its 'perverse' dangers

reuters.com

Pope Francis warns of ‘perverse’ AI dangers

Pope Francis warns of ‘perverse’ AI dangers

thehill.com

That Viral Image of the Swagged Out Pope Is an AI Fake, Dummies
futurism.com · 2023

Did they fool you? Those mega-viral images of Pope Francis looking fresh to death in a pristine white puffer are AI-generated fakes.

As Snopes reports, that pic of Il Papa that went viral over the weekend is, as lots of people suspected, a …

Fake photos of Pope Francis in a puffer jacket go viral, highlighting the power and peril of AI
cbsnews.com · 2023

It was a cold wind that blew through St. Peter's Square at the Vatican over the weekend, but that didn't deter Pope Francis from taking a stroll outside to greet the faithful, as he often does. When images appeared online showing the 86-yea…

AI-generated puffy pontiff image inspires new warning from Pope Francis
arstechnica.com · 2024
Benj Edwards post-incident response

A cropped portion of an AI-generated image of Pope Francis wearing a puffy coat that went viral in March 2023.

After a realistic AI-generated image of Pope Francis in a puffy coat went viral on social media last year, the Pope himself appar…

Pope Francis, victim of AI, warns against its 'perverse' dangers
reuters.com · 2024
Philip Pullella post-incident response

VATICAN CITY, Jan 24 (Reuters) - Pope Francis, acknowledging that he was the victim of a deepfake photo, on Wednesday warned against the "perverse" dangers of artificial intelligence, renewing a call for its worldwide regulation to harness …

Pope Francis warns of ‘perverse’ AI dangers
thehill.com · 2024
Lauren Sforza post-incident response

Pope Francis issued a stark warning on Wednesday of the "perverse" dangers of artificial intelligence --- even noting he was a victim.

"We need but think of the long-standing problem of disinformation in the form of fake news, which today c…

Variants

A "variant" is an incident that shares the same causative factors, produces similar harms, and involves the same intelligent systems as a known AI incident. Rather than index variants as entirely separate incidents, we list variations of incidents under the first similar incident submitted to the database. Unlike other submission types to the incident database, variants are not required to have reporting in evidence external to the Incident Database. Learn more from the research paper.
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