AI-Generated Image of Pope Francis With a Dog Goes Viral as Real

This is an AI-generated image and not a real photograph.

An AI-generated image of Pope Francis crying while hugging a dog is going viral as a 'last photo' of them together.

(Photo: The Quint)

An image showing late Pope Francis crying while hugging a dog is going viral on social media where users are claiming that it shows "the last image" of them together

An archive can be seen here.

(Source: Facebook/screenshot)

(Archives of similar claims can be seen here and here.)

What's the truth?: This is an AI-generated image and a not a real one.

How did we find out the truth?: We performed a reverse image search on the viral image but it did not bring up any credible news report carrying this image.

• We then ran the image on AI-detection tools like Hive Moderation and Sight Engine.

• Both of the tools concluded that this image is generated using AI and is not real.

• Hive Moderation concluded that this image is 95.2 percent AI-generated while Sight Engine returned with 99 percent.

This is an AI-generated image.

This is not a real photo.

Conclusion: An AI-generated image of Pope Francis crying while hugging a dog is going viral as a 'last photo' of them together.

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