Vatican warns of deepfake video using Pope Leo XIV's image to praise Burkina Faso leader
A 36-minute deepfake video using manipulated footage of Pope Leo XIV and AI-generated speech was posted on YouTube praising Burkina Faso's leader Ibrahim Traoré. The video accumulated nearly one million views despite containing disclaimers about being fictional, and misled hundreds of viewers who believed it was authentic. The Vatican warned the public to verify papal messages on its official website.
What happened
A 36-minute video posted on YouTube by the channel Pan-African Dreams purported to show Pope Leo XIV reading a statement praising Ibrahim Traoré, the military leader of Burkina Faso, while addressing colonialism and injustices in Africa. The video used manipulated footage from Pope Leo XIV's audience with journalists on May 12, with a 'morphing' technique applied to match the movement of lips to AI-generated words spoken in an accent not belonging to the pope.
The video's description explicitly identified it as 'a work of fiction inspired by the life of Ibrahim Traoré' with a disclaimer stating situations and dialogues were 'entirely imaginary.' YouTube also applied a label noting the video contained 'Altered or synthetic content.' Despite these disclaimers, the video accumulated nearly one million views on YouTube by May 19.
Reported impact
Hundreds of viewers reportedly expressed being misled, with comments suggesting they believed the video was authentic, including statements like 'This made me cry!! What I've been waiting for a pope to say all my life!!' and expressing hope based on the false content. A separate fabricated quote attributed to Pope Leo XIV circulated on Facebook, Instagram, and other social media platforms starting May 14, falsely claiming the pope said: 'You cannot follow both Christ and the cruelty of kings.'
Index analysis
The deepfake video employed video morphing technology to synchronize manipulated facial movements with synthetic speech, making the fabricated content appear authentic despite technical markers that could distinguish it from genuine papal addresses. The proliferation of both the lengthy video and shorter social media quotes demonstrated how synthetic content attributed to Pope Leo XIV could rapidly spread across multiple platforms.
Governance controls
The Vatican issued a warning on May 21 through Vatican News in multiple languages, directing the public to verify all papal speeches and messages on the Vatican website before sharing supposed quotes and videos. Vatican News specifically described how the deepfake was produced using footage from the pope's May 12 audience and detailed the morphing technique employed.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.