(LifeSiteNews) — A YouTube video purportedly showing Pope Leo XIV offering a glowing message to the president of the African nation of Burkina Faso is an AI-altered deepfake, the Vatican announced.
The 36-minute video, which allegedly shows the pontiff praising the leadership of President Ibrahim Traoré of Burkina Faso, was uploaded on the YouTube channel Pan-African Dreams, which currently has over a million views, and is an AI-generated deepfake, per Vatican News. The AI-altered video was created using footage from Pope Leo XIV’s May 12 papal audience and morphed with AI-generated words so they appeared to be coming from the pontiff’s lips.
Pope Leo XIV has emphasized the dangers AI poses to society in the early days of his pontificate.
“A 36-minute speech in English, created with artificial intelligence, has been uploaded to YouTube, falsely attributing to Pope Leo XIV words for Ibrahim Traoré, President of Burkina Faso,” Vatican News wrote in an X post.
A 36-minute speech in English, created with artificial intelligence, has been uploaded to YouTube, falsely attributing to Pope Leo XIV words for Ibrahim Traoré, President of Burkina Faso.https://t.co/fhtqsqtvso
— Vatican News (@VaticanNews) May 21, 2025
The Holy Father’s purported praise for Traoré would have been noteworthy because the controversial leader gained control of his government through a coup d’état in 2022 and has shifted Burkina Faso’s foreign policy from pro-Western to one that is more favorable to Russia.
READ: Viral Leo XIV pro-life quotes appear to be accidentally AI-generated
Pope Leo XIV has expressed concern over the development of artificial intelligence and other modern technologies in the first weeks of his pontificate. Indeed, the pontiff has stated that the main reason he chose “Leo” as his papal name is to confront the challenges AI poses to human dignity and labor, as Pope Leo XIII confronted similar challenges during the Industrial Revolution in his landmark encyclical Rerum Novarum.
READ: What are Pope Leo’s priorities and why did he choose that name?
Addressing the cardinals, Leo explained:
I chose to take the name Leo XIV. There are different reasons for this, but mainly because Pope Leo XIII in his historic Encyclical Rerum Novarum addressed the social question in the context of the first great industrial revolution. In our own day, the Church offers to everyone the treasury of her social teaching in response to another industrial revolution and to developments in the field of artificial intelligence that pose new challenges for the defence of human dignity, justice and labour.
Pope Leo XIV has warned that artificial intelligence could threaten human dignity, labor, and justice, and he’s right.
Like Leo XIII confronted the Industrial Revolution with Rerum Novarum, Leo XIV is calling the Church to face the AI revolution not with fear, but with truth.… pic.twitter.com/w28sIRA6WO
— Patrick Coffin (@CoffinMedia) May 23, 2025
