The Pope Coat Was Helpful, Actually
We need more innocuous lessons in how to recognize AI images
To judge by the general reaction to it, the Pope Coat — the AI-generated image of the Pope Francis wearing a huge designer white puffer coat that went viral last week — was yet another sign of the looming information apocalypse. “The images fooled scores of users, in one of the first instances of wide-scale misinformation stemming from artificial intelligence,” NBC News reported. “I think Balenciaga pope might be the first real mass-level AI misinformation case,” Ryan Broderick, who writes the Garbage Day newsletter on internet culture, tweeted. He expanded on the point: “There’s probably a lot more coming and there’s not a ton we can do about it!” Broderick wrote in his newsletter, adding that attempts at regulation would be too slow.
Yes, the fake photo (generated by Midjourney) fooled a lot of people. And yes, there will be more to come. But as AI-generated photos (and audio and video) proliferate, growing sharper alongside it — slower, but increasing nonetheless — will be our collective radar to suss-out computer-generated media. Along with the myriad stories noting that the Pope Coat was fake were nearly as many pieces explaining why. They pointed out the subtle, but noticeable, problems with the image. The Pope’s eyelid appeared to be attached to his…
