Pope Francis’ wardrobe is always interesting, as it is steeped in sacred tradition. The fact that he has to dress in keeping with this tradition makes his clothes fascinating to many. When a photo of the Pope wearing a long, white puffer coat with his traditional pectoral cross and white zucchetto cap surfaced before the fifth Sunday of Lent, people went wild. The puffer coat was gargantuan, gleaming, with a cinched waist and an imposing oversize hood. It landed in that slim Venn diagram sweet spot between “what the pope might actually, practically wear to keep warm on a cold day” and “what the wealthiest 26-year-olds are currently wearing around SoHo.” However, the image was fake, created using generative AI program Midjourney.
The creator of the image is a 31-year-old Chicago construction worker named Pablo Xavier. He came up with the idea while on shrooms, and it is a reminder that not everything created by AI is meant to pass itself off as authentic. There’s a word, after all, for the depiction of things that aren’t necessarily real: art.
