Pope Leo XIV deepfake video sparks Vatican caution
The Vatican warns against fake videos featuring Pope Leo XIV circulating online. These materials, generated by artificial intelligence, attribute words to the pope that he never spoke. The information was reported by Vatican News.
The video, which falsely attributes words to Pope Leo XIV directed at the president of Burkina Faso, Ibrahim Traoré, is fake. The video, lasting 36 minutes, was published on YouTube and has been viewed over a million times. The pope never made such statements, and the material is the result of manipulation using morphing technology.
Fake videos online featuring Pope Leo XIV
Vatican News explains that artificial intelligence was used to create the video, which matched the pope's lip movements to the generated words. The recording gives the impression that the pope publicly responded to Traoré's letter, which is false. YouTube has flagged the video as fictional, but it remains available.
Experts warn that such materials can mislead the public, especially if shared without appropriate context. This is another example of how deepfake technology can be used to manipulate messages and create false narratives involving public figures.
Artificial intelligence and disinformation
The Vatican emphasizes that this is not the only instance of fake videos featuring Pope Leo XIV. There is a YouTube channel with alleged sermons by the pope, which are entirely AI-generated. The channel already has 18,300 subscribers and nearly 770,000 views.
The Vatican media remind that all official speeches and texts by Pope Leo XIV are available on the website vatican.va and on the Vatican News portal. These are the only reliable sources of information about the pope.
