Pope Leo turns to website widgets to tackle AI-generated fakes
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Pope Leo XIV waving to the faithful on Feb 18, during the weekly general audience in Saint Peter's Square, in the Vatican City.
PHOTO: EPA
- Pope Leo XIV urged Catholic organisations to embed an official Vatican news feed on websites to combat AI-generated fake content.
- The feed offers constantly updating, authorised videos, speeches, and texts in 40 languages as a "tool of evangelisation."
- This initiative combats "fake news" after AI-generated videos attributed to the Pope garnered millions of fraudulent views online.
AI generated
VATICAN CITY - Pope Leo XIV has urged Catholic organisations to include a direct feed of official Vatican news on their websites as the Holy See battles a flood of AI-generated content.
Vatican News, the Holy See’s official news outlet, reported on Feb 18 that the pontiff had written to bishops inviting them to use the feed on parish, diocese and Catholic association websites.
By embedding a widget, the websites will be able to carry a constantly updating feed of authorised videos of the US pope, as well as speeches, announcements, texts and stories from official Vatican outlets – in 40 different languages.
In his letter, the pope told bishops it was a “tool of evangelisation” and “a way for your parishes and communities to constantly obtain information from the primary source”.
An AFP investigation after Leo’s May 2025 election as head of the Catholic Church identified dozens of YouTube and TikTok pages that were churning out AI-generated videos and recordings attributed to the pope.
On TikTok, one Spanish-language video received 9.6 million views while claiming to show Leo preaching about the value of adoring women. Another, which carried an AI label but still fooled viewers, was watched some 32.9 million times.
Mr Andrea Tornielli, editorial director of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Communication, said the new initiative “can serve to combat the phenomenon of fake news by allowing immediate access to the original source of news and texts”. AFP
