{"id":12735,"date":"2023-03-29T15:00:59","date_gmt":"2023-03-29T15:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/TheNextWeb=1395165"},"modified":"2023-03-29T15:00:59","modified_gmt":"2023-03-29T15:00:59","slug":"opinion-the-ai-pope-coat-is-the-shape-of-hyperreality-to-come","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/?p=12735","title":{"rendered":"Opinion: The AI pope coat is the shape of hyperreality to come"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By now, you\u2019ll have seen it. Pope Francis walks across the frame, his focus on the mid-distance. He\u2019s brightly lit as though it\u2019s early morning. A silver cross hangs from his neck, dangling over his snow-white, Balenciaga-inspired puffer jacket. It\u2019s the baller bishop, the steezy father, his holy drippiness \u2014 and he\u2019s been ordained from on high.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you were on social media at any point over the past weekend, you would have seen the image. And \u2014 if you were anything like me and seemingly millions of other people \u2014 you didn\u2019t immediately realise it was AI-generated.<\/span><\/p>\n

In history books, this will likely go down as the first time the public was fooled en-masse by an AI-generated image. But this is just the beginning, a marker of times to come.<\/span><\/p>\n

The AI pope\u2019s rise to prominence<\/span><\/h2>\n

The picture first reached the public in any real sense on Twitter, with this tweet in particular being widely shared:<\/span><\/p>\n

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OKAAYYY pic.twitter.com\/MliHsksX7L<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 leon (@skyferrori) March 25, 2023<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The image itself was created by a Reddit user (<\/span>interviewed by Buzzfeed here<\/span><\/a>) and posted to <\/span>the Midjourney subreddit<\/span><\/a> on Friday, along with three other images the AI-driven picture generator created from the prompt.<\/span><\/p>\n

Then it went haywire in that peculiarly online way; memes flowing, people sharing the image with comments like, \u201cthe pope slings pipe with a real fuccboi energy\u201d \u2014 and, of course, individuals using Photoshop to the fullest extent of its mighty powers:<\/span><\/p>\n

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Are you wearing the\u2026 <\/p>\n

“papal puffer parka? yes. I am.” pic.twitter.com\/59corwNlCe<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Nick (@nicktotin) March 25, 2023<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

It was only further through the weekend that many people who\u2019d seen or shared the fake picture of the pope realised it was AI-generated. In some senses, it\u2019s not hard to spot a computer is behind the image.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"AI
<\/i><\/a>I\u2019ve marked some areas where you can see tell-tale signs of an AI-generated image, from blurriness and odd textures to issues with creating hands.<\/i><\/i><\/figcaption>