Opinion: The AI pope coat is the shape of hyperreality to come

By now, you’ll have seen it. Pope Francis walks across the frame, his focus on the mid-distance. He’s brightly lit as though it’s early morning. A silver cross hangs from his neck, dangling over his snow-white, Balenciaga-inspired puffer jacket. It’s the baller bishop, the steezy father, his holy drippiness — and he’s been ordained from on high. If you were on social media at any point over the past weekend, you would have seen the image. And — if you were anything like me and seemingly millions of other people — you didn’t immediately realise it was AI-generated. In history…

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