AI-Generated Images of Pope Francis Wearing Puffer Jacket Goes Viral as Real

This image of Pope Francis wearing a puffer jacket is not real, but an AI-generated image.

An image showing Pope Francis wearing a long white-coloured puffer jacket is going viral on social media with a claim that this is a real image.

(Archives of similar claims can be seen here and here.)

Is this image real?: This viral image is created by Artificial Intelligence (AI) on an AI art tool known as Midjourney.

How did we find out the truth?: By performing a relevant keyword search, we came across an article by an American website, Buzzfeed News.

• The report shared on 28 March carried the viral image and stated that the image was created by Pablo Xavier (31), a construction worker from the Chicago area.

• However, the creator's last name was changed in the report as per his request.

• The report adds that Xavier creates "funny or psychedelic" images using an AI art tool called Midjourney.

• It also states that Xavier envisioned an image of "the Pope wearing a Balenciaga puffer coat and walking the streets of Rome or Paris".

• It also carried Xavier's other AI-generated image of the Pope wearing an orange-coloured jacket.

• The report also adds that Xavier's account on a content sharing platform, Reddit, has now been suspended after he posted his creations there which went viral.

How does Midjourney work?: We checked more AI-generated images of Pope Francis on Midjourney with similar commands.

• We searched similar examples by relevant keyword search on Midjourney and came across several AI-generated images showing the Pope wearing different types of jackets.

Conclusion: Clearly, the viral photo of Pope Francis in a white puffer coat is AI-generated and is being falsely shared as a real photo.

Several such AI-generated image have recently gone viral as real and The Quint's WebQoof team has debunked some of them here and here.

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