An AFP investigation identified dozens of YouTube and TikTok pages that have been churning out AI-generated messages delivered in the pope’s voice or otherwise attributed to him since he took charge of the Catholic Church last month.
Society
US President Donald Trump ambushed his South African counterpart Cyril Ramaphosa at talks Wednesday with a video meant to support unfounded claims of the “persecution” of white farmers.
“In memory of Pope Francis, this will forever be my favorite video of him,” says an April 21, 2025 post on X, shared shortly after the Vatican announced Pope Francis, 88, had died.
“Tariff problems, a sudden attack,” reads simplified Chinese sticker text on an April 11 Douyin video of a man appearing to walk on stage behind Trump, hit him, and walk away as Trump ducks and Secret Service agents rush up to protect him.
Climate change deniers are pushing an AI-generated paper questioning human-induced warming, leading experts to warn against the rise of research that is inherently flawed but marketed as neutral and scrupulously logical.
“BREAKING NEWS: TRUMP STRIKES BACK — DEATH PENALTY FOR mRNA CRIMES NOW ON THE TABLE”, reads the headline of a lengthy Facebook post published on February 26, 2025.
New scientific research claims ocean currents are “stable,” states Anthony Watts in a February 28, 2025 article on his website.
“BREAKING: Ukraine ‘soldiers’ have resorted to faking combat in order to appear ‘war torn’ so the slush fund from the U.S. keeps churning money their way!” says a March 1, 2025 X post with thousands of interactions.
A common theme among spreaders of disinformation is that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is a Nazi or that he embezzles Western aid intended for Ukraine. In the past, disinformation spreaders have falsely claimed that he bought a former mansion of Joseph Goebbels, two luxury yachts or even Adolf Hitler’s Mercedes.
The fabricated Time magazine cover was shared on X on February 10, 2025.