{"id":100032,"date":"2025-08-21T19:05:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-21T19:05:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/100032\/"},"modified":"2025-08-21T19:05:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-21T19:05:09","slug":"bishop-robert-barron-warns-about-fake-ai-videos-impersonating-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/100032\/","title":{"rendered":"Bishop Robert Barron warns about fake AI videos impersonating him"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n \"Diego
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

By Diego L\u00f3pez Marina<\/a>\n <\/p>\n

ACI Prensa Staff, Aug 21, 2025 \/
\n 14:15 pm<\/p>\n

Bishop Robert Barron of Winona-Rochester in Minnesota and founder of the Catholic ministry Word on Fire<\/a> recently warned about the proliferation of fake videos created with artificial intelligence (AI) circulating on social media\u00a0impersonating him.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe presence online of these videos generated by artificial intelligence that purport to be from me and that are not from me\u201d is a problem that is becoming \u201cincreasingly difficult,\u201d the prelate warned in a message posted Aug. 20 on his official social media<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

\u201cI said I\u2019ve not been in a restaurant in Chicago for about five years. Well, it was one of these AI-generated silly videos,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

He also recalled another case in which he was supposedly summoned to Rome by Pope Leo XIV for \u201chigh-level discussions.\u201d The bishop clarified: \u201cI\u2019ve met Pope Leo once \u2014 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\u2019s my one contact with him. I\u2019m not being summoned to Rome for high-level discussions.\u201d<\/p>\n

A video even circulated in which he supposedly gave recommendations on how to \u201cremove demons from your toilet.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cMy point,\u201d Barron said, is \u201cthis is all ridiculous. And I think if you spend just a moment, you can tell the difference between an authentic video from me and one of these fakes.\u201d<\/p>\n

The bishop warned that this phenomenon is not harmless: \u201cThese are fraudsters. What they\u2019re doing is making money off these things\u00a0because they monetize them through ads \u2026 So it\u2019s not just harmless fun people are having. It\u2019s doing damage to my reputation, but it\u2019s also doing damage to people who are being defrauded.\u201d<\/p>\n

In response, he urged the faithful not to be fooled: \u201cDon\u2019t take these silly things seriously. Don\u2019t watch them. And what you look for is something on my YouTube channel<\/a>, something on the official Word on Fire channel<\/a>, and there\u2019s a blue check you can see next to my name, the profile name. Look for that: That\u2019s the sign that it\u2019s a video from me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finally, he called for common sense: \u201cWhen you see these goofy images that are obviously generated by a computer and you hear me talking about some wild thing, I hope you have the sense to know \u2018Look, that\u2019s not really Bishop Barron speaking.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s becoming increasingly a problem and I want you to know about it and do what you can to battle it. And God bless you,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n

Leo XIV\u2019s concern for the ethical use of AI<\/p>\n

Since the beginning of his pontificate, Pope Leo XIV has expressed particular concern about the ethical use of AI. On June 7, the pontiff underscored<\/a> the \u201curgent need\u201d for \u201cserious reflection and ongoing discussion on the inherently ethical dimension of AI as well as its responsible governance.\u201d<\/p>\n

A month later, in his message to participants at the AI \u200b\u200bfor Good 2025<\/a> summit held in Geneva, Switzerland, he recalled that \u201calthough responsibility for the ethical use of AI systems begins with those who develop, manage, and oversee them, those who use them also share in this responsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his letter<\/a>, the pope urged the promotion of \u201cregulatory frameworks centered on the human person\u201d and \u201cproper ethical management\u201d of AI technologies at both the local and global levels.<\/p>\n

This story was first published<\/a> by ACI Prensa, CNA\u2019s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.<\/p>\n

(Story continues below)<\/p>\n

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\n \"Diego
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Diego Lopez Marina has a degree in Communication Sciences with a specialization in journalism from the University of San Mart\u00edn de Porres (Peru). He began his professional career in 2015, as an editor for the Journalistic Archive area of the Diario El Comercio. In 2016 he began working as an writer for ACI Prensa and since 2018 he has been working as a web editor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Diego L\u00f3pez Marina ACI Prensa Staff, Aug 21, 2025 \/ 14:15 pm Bishop Robert Barron of Winona-Rochester…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":100033,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[182,181,507,67043,43265,19431,74,25,67042],"class_list":["post-100032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-bishop-robert-barron","tag-catholic-news","tag-pope-leo-xiv","tag-technology","tag-us","tag-word-on-fire"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100032"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100032\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}