YouTube terminated a channel that was publishing fake, artificial intelligence-generated, "sermons" attributed to Pope Leo XIV that were "read" in his voice.
"We terminated the channel in question for violating our policies covering spam, deceptive practices, and scams," Jack Malon, a YouTube spokesperson, told Aleteia on Thursday, May 21.
The channel, named "Pope Leo XIV's Sermons," had almost 18,000 subscribers and nearly one million views on its 26 videos as of Wednesday, May 21, before it was taken down.
All of the videos were AI-generated, and Pope Leo XIV has not actually said anything attributed to him, or read in "his" voice in the videos, although some of them were loosely based on the pontiff's actual speeches and homilies.
Now that the Pope Leo XIV's Sermons channel has been terminated, all other channels operated by creator have been terminated as well, Malon told Aleteia. Two additional channels, that were not named, were also terminated.
It is against YouTube's terms of service to make another channel to continue posting the same content as the terminated channel, or to use an additional channel to circumvent a ban, added Malon.
While all of the videos on the channel contain YouTube's AI disclaimer that "Sound or visuals were significantly edited or digitally generated," comments on the various videos suggested it was not immediately obvious that the sermon itself was never given by Pope Leo XIV.
"Wow! Our Holy Father speaks the powerful and challenging truth! God bless him! Thank you. Lord, for Pope Leo XIV!" read one comment.
"Thank you for a sermon that needs to be heard by all if we want to be a true follower of our Lord. I have not heard a sermon like this for a very long time. God bless our Pope. Amen," said another.
The most viewed video on the channel, which was titled "POPES WAKEUP URGENT CALL TO ALL TRUE CHRISTIANS || POPE LEO XIV SPEECH," was uploaded on May 13 and has received nearly 330,000 views.
The video consisted of a sermon the pope has never said, "read" in "his" voice.
"Pan-African Dreams," another channel featuring AI-generated videos falsely attributed to Pope Leo XIV and President of Burkina Faso Ibrahim Traoré, remains active as of Thursday.
