Bishop Barron warns about fake AI videos impersonating him

Bishop Robert Barron of Winona-Rochester in Minnesota and founder of the Catholic ministry Word on Firerecently warned about the proliferation of fake videos created with artificial intelligence (AI) circulating on social media impersonating him.

“The presence online of these videos generated by artificial intelligence that purport to be from me and that are notfrom me” is a problem that is becoming “increasingly difficult,” the prelate warned in a message posted Aug. 20 on his official social media.

Barron recounted that a few months ago, a woman told him that she felt so bad about an altercation he supposedly got into in a restaurant in Chicago, which was actually a fake video.

“I said I’ve not been in a restaurant in Chicago for about five years. Well, it was one of these AI-generated silly videos,” he explained.

He also recalled another case in which he was supposedly summoned to Rome by Pope Leo XIV for “high-level discussions.” The bishop clarified: “I’ve met Pope Leo once — it happened a couple of weeks ago in Rome; we put it up on our social media. I shook his hand and he smiled at me. That’s my one contact with him. I’m not being summoned to Rome for high-level discussions.”

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