You remember the photo. It was everywhere. A crisp, arctic-white puffer coat draped over the shoulders of Pope Francis, looking less like a 266th Bishop of Rome and more like he was about to drop the hardest drill album of 2023. Honestly, for a solid 48 hours, half the internet was convinced the Vatican had hired a high-fashion stylist.
But here is the thing. That pope white puffer coat never existed in a closet in Vatican City.
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It was a total fabrication. A digital ghost.
The Day the Internet Broke (and Why We All Believed It)
It was March 2023. A 31-year-old construction worker from Chicago named Pablo Xavier was messing around with an AI tool called Midjourney. He wasn't trying to start a global conspiracy or dismantle the papacy. According to interviews he gave to BuzzFeed News, he was just "tripping on mushrooms" and thought it would be funny to see the Pope in some Balenciaga "drip."
He typed the prompt, the AI spat out a series of images, and he posted them to a subreddit called r/midjourney. Within hours, the images jumped to Twitter (now X). From there, they went supernova.
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Why did we fall for it? Seriously.
Usually, when we see the Pope, he is dressed in traditional, centuries-old vestments. Seeing him in a cinched, designer-looking down jacket felt weirdly... plausible? He is the "progressive" Pope, after all. He’s the guy who signed a Lamborghini and once wore custom-made white sneakers. Our brains didn’t see a "fake"; they saw a 1,000-year-old institution finally getting a wardrobe upgrade.
How to Spot the Fakes in Your Feed
If you look at that original pope white puffer coat image now—knowing it’s fake—the cracks are obvious. AI in early 2023 was incredible, sure, but it was still struggling with the basics.
- The Hand Situation: Look at the Pope's right hand in the viral shot. He is holding a water bottle, but the fingers are a smeared, melted mess. AI back then treated fingers like extra fries in a McDonald's bag—it just threw a random number of them in there.
- The Crucifix: The cross hanging around his neck doesn't actually connect to the chain properly. It sort of floats or merges into the fabric of the coat.
- The Texture Paradox: Everything is too "perfect." The lighting on the white fabric has that uncanny valley sheen that looks more like a Pixar render than a photo taken in natural Roman sunlight.
It's actually kinda scary how fast we scrolled past those details. Chrissy Teigen even tweeted about being fooled, saying she had no way of surviving the future of technology. She wasn't wrong.
The Vatican's Real Reaction
The Vatican didn't issue a formal press release about the jacket, but Pope Francis himself addressed the broader issue not long after. He didn't name-drop the Balenciaga memes, but he spoke about the "perverse" potential of AI technology. He basically warned that while these tools are amazing for human creativity, they become dangerous when they distort our relationship with reality.
Think about that. One day you're laughing at "The Vicar of Drip," and the next day, AI is being used to fake political speeches or bank authorizations. The puffer coat was the ultimate "low stakes" warning shot for the deepfake era we’re living in now in 2026.
Why the "Drip" Still Matters Today
The pope white puffer coat became more than just a meme; it was a cultural milestone. It marked the exact moment the general public realized that "seeing is no longer believing."
Before this, deepfakes were mostly associated with grainy, weird videos or specific political attacks. This was different. It was aesthetic. It was fun. It was something your grandma might share on Facebook because she genuinely thought the Holy Father looked "warm and stylish."
It also sparked a massive surge in "Balenciaga AI" memes. Suddenly, we had Harry Potter, Star Wars characters, and historical figures all wearing the same oversized, high-fashion silhouettes. It turned a high-end fashion brand into a visual shorthand for AI-generated absurdity.
How to Protect Yourself from the Next Viral Hoax
Honestly, the technology has only gotten better since 2023. The "melted finger" giveaway? That's mostly fixed now. If you want to stay sharp, you've gotta change how you consume media.
- Check the source, always. Was this photo posted by the Associated Press or a guy named @TrippyArt99 on Reddit?
- Look for the "Smoothness." AI-generated skin often looks airbrushed to death. Real skin has pores, uneven tones, and tiny imperfections that AI still struggles to randomize perfectly.
- Reverse image search is your best friend. If a photo looks too wild to be true, drop it into Google Lens. If it only appears on meme accounts and not news sites, it’s a fake.
Your Next Steps for Digital Literacy:
- Audit your feed: Go through your recent "saved" or "liked" photos. How many of them are clearly AI? Look for the tell-tale signs in the background—distorted faces in a crowd or text on signs that looks like gibberish.
- Use AI detection tools: While not 100% accurate, sites like Hive Moderation can help you get a "probability score" on whether an image was generated by a model like Midjourney or DALL-E.
- Practice "Lateral Reading": Instead of staring at the photo to find a flaw, open a new tab. Search for "Pope Francis white coat news." If the world's most famous man wore a $4,000 designer jacket, every fashion magazine on earth would have a legitimate article about it. If they don't, it’s a ghost.