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That's Pope Francis in a luxurious snow-white puffer jacket, with matching tunic and zucchetto.*
But what's a swagged-out Pope without some ornament? A giant, blingy, silver crucifix certainly does the trick.
The 86-year-old Pope's unusually stylish look went viral on social media in recent days, drawing headlines and fawning adulation from fans around the world who dubbed him "Balenciaga Pope." As one Twitter user put it, "The boys in Brooklyn could only hope for this level of drip." (For those confused about the word "drip," in this context it means to be enviably fashionable.)
It is true that this Pope is known for eschewing the traditional fancy red slippers and stuffy ermine of past leaders of the Catholic Church, so it seemed entirely plausible he might have taken another leap into what GQ has called "papal athleisure."
Except this image was generated by newly released artificial intelligence software from San Francisco start-up Midjourney, posted on Reddit and then blasted out across social media channels, fooling millions of people and resulting in what some are describing as "the first real, mass-level AI misinformation case."
The response was staggering. "I thought the Pope's puffer jacket was real and didn't give it a second thought," wrote supermodel Chrissy Teigen on Twitter. "No way am I surviving the future of technology."
The revelation comes just days after another set of AI-generated images, which seemed to be real-life photos, hit the internet depicting Trump being pursued by law enforcement, arrested, tried, imprisoned and forced into menial labor, such as mopping jailhouse bathrooms. The images, which were also produced using Midjourney software, were created and posted online by Eliot Higgins, founder of open-source investigative journalism website Bellingcat.
In an era of rising misinformation, fake news and endless debate over what does and does not qualify as fact, it has been heartening to think one can still trust their own eyes – but how long will that remain the case?
While free-speech advocates have pressed for careful consideration of how so-called "deepfakes" are regulated, the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs is not waiting. Late last year, it pushed ahead with a bipartisan vote to approve the Deepfake Task Force Act, which will aim to counter the potential threats of deepfake technology.
"For most of human history, seeing meant believing, but now that is becoming less and less true, thanks to deepfakes," said Republican Senator Rob Portman of Ohio, one of the task force sponsors. "Combined with the network effects created by social media, fake videos or pictures can travel around the world in an instant, tricking citizens."
*A zucchetto is the white, beanie-looking cap the Pope wears. While other leaders of the church may wear beanies of many hues, only the Pope can wear a white one.
That's Pope Francis in a luxurious snow-white puffer jacket, with matching tunic and zucchetto.*
But what's a swagged-out Pope without some ornament? A giant, blingy, silver crucifix certainly does the trick.
The 86-year-old Pope's unusually stylish look went viral on social media in recent days, drawing headlines and fawning adulation from fans around the world who dubbed him "Balenciaga Pope." As one Twitter user put it, "The boys in Brooklyn could only hope for this level of drip." (For those confused about the word "drip," in this context it means to be enviably fashionable.)
It is true that this Pope is known for eschewing the traditional fancy red slippers and stuffy ermine of past leaders of the Catholic Church, so it seemed entirely plausible he might have taken another leap into what GQ has called "papal athleisure."
Except this image was generated by newly released artificial intelligence software from San Francisco start-up Midjourney, posted on Reddit and then blasted out across social media channels, fooling millions of people and resulting in what some are describing as "the first real, mass-level AI misinformation case."
The response was staggering. "I thought the Pope's puffer jacket was real and didn't give it a second thought," wrote supermodel Chrissy Teigen on Twitter. "No way am I surviving the future of technology."
The revelation comes just days after another set of AI-generated images, which seemed to be real-life photos, hit the internet depicting Trump being pursued by law enforcement, arrested, tried, imprisoned and forced into menial labor, such as mopping jailhouse bathrooms. The images, which were also produced using Midjourney software, were created and posted online by Eliot Higgins, founder of open-source investigative journalism website Bellingcat.
In an era of rising misinformation, fake news and endless debate over what does and does not qualify as fact, it has been heartening to think one can still trust their own eyes – but how long will that remain the case?
While free-speech advocates have pressed for careful consideration of how so-called "deepfakes" are regulated, the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs is not waiting. Late last year, it pushed ahead with a bipartisan vote to approve the Deepfake Task Force Act, which will aim to counter the potential threats of deepfake technology.
"For most of human history, seeing meant believing, but now that is becoming less and less true, thanks to deepfakes," said Republican Senator Rob Portman of Ohio, one of the task force sponsors. "Combined with the network effects created by social media, fake videos or pictures can travel around the world in an instant, tricking citizens."
*A zucchetto is the white, beanie-looking cap the Pope wears. While other leaders of the church may wear beanies of many hues, only the Pope can wear a white one.
