Bishop Robert Barron, founder of Catholic media ministry Word on Fire, has warned of the proliferation of fake videos created with artificial intelligence that impersonate him and are circulating on social media. Source: CNA.
“The presence online of these videos generated by artificial intelligence that purport to be from me and that are not from me” is a problem that is becoming “increasingly difficult” the prelate warned in a message posted on Wednesday on his official social media.
Bishop Barron recounted that a few months ago, a woman told him that she felt so bad about an altercation he supposedly got into in a restaurant in Chicago, which was a fake video.
“I said I’ve not been in a restaurant in Chicago for about five years. Well, it was one of these AI-generated silly videos,” he explained.
He recalled another case in which he was supposedly summoned to Rome by Pope Leo XIV for “high-level discussions.”
The bishop clarified: “I’ve met Pope Leo once – it happened a couple of weeks ago in Rome; we put it up on our social media. I shook his hand and he smiled at me. That’s my one contact with him. I’m not being summoned to Rome for high-level discussions.”
“My point,” Bishop Barron said, is “this is all ridiculous. And I think if you spend just a moment, you can tell the difference between an authentic video from me and one of these fakes.”
The bishop warned that this phenomenon is not harmless: “These are fraudsters. What they’re doing is making money off these things because they monetise them through ads … So it’s not just harmless fun people are having. It’s doing damage to my reputation, but it’s also doing damage to people who are being defrauded.”
In response, he urged the faithful not to be fooled and to look to his official website, YouTube and social media accounts for his genuine content.
Since the beginning of his pontificate, Pope Leo XIV has expressed particular concern about the ethical use of AI. On June 7, the Pontiff underscored the “urgent need” for “serious reflection and ongoing discussion on the inherently ethical dimension of AI as well as its responsible governance”.
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Bishop Barron warns about fake AI videos impersonating him (By Diego López Marina, CNA)
