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AI detection tool Resemble.AI flagged as fake the audio of Pope Leo XIV urging Catholics to use ‘blessed salt’ in their homes to ‘drive away evil’
Claim: Pope Leo XIV urges Catholics to put “blessed salt” in five different places in their homes to “disrupt the darkness.”
Rating: FALSE
Why we fact-checked this: The YouTube video bearing the claim has garnered 3,150 views and 105 likes as of writing. The channel that posted it, “Faith with Pope Leo,” has 148 subscribers.
The video is titled “Pope Leo XIV reveals: Put salt in these 5 places in your home and watch God move!” In the video, the alleged voice of Pope Leo XIV can be heard citing the Bible verse Matthew 5:13 as proof of salt “being chosen by Christ as a symbol of the Christian life.”
Leo supposedly tells viewers to sprinkle salt at the entrance of their homes, corners, bedroom, kitchen or dining area, and windows while praying to “drive away evil.”
The facts: AI detection tool Resemble.AI flagged the video’s audio as fake. No media reports confirm that the Pope instructed Catholics to sprinkle salt in their homes, although Leo has indeed used salt as a metaphor in a previous statement.
“Each one of you gives your contribution, carrying out your daily work with commitment and also with faith, because faith and prayer are like salt for food; they impart flavor,” Leo said during a May 24 audience with Vatican employees.
The fake video was posted a week after the Pope made the statement, even if he made no mention of sprinkling such salt to ward off evil.
Deepfakes of Pope Leo XIV: AI-generated videos of the Pope have been rapidly increasing online, according to an investigation by Agence France-Presse (AFP) published on June 6.
“There’s natural interest in what the new pope has to say, and people don’t yet know his stance and style,” TrueMedia.org founder Oren Etzioni said in the AFP report.
The report also warned that “seemingly harmless fakes” can still be problematic if they are used for engagement farming by accounts that sell their audiences or pivot to other forms of misinformation.
The Pope himself has warned against the dangers of artificial intelligence, choosing the name Leo XIV because of it and identifying it as one of humanity’s main challenges.
Previous fact-checks: Rappler has debunked other false claims about church figures:
– Shay Du/Rappler.com
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