Erika Malandra For weeks, Pope Francis has been hospitalized at the Policlinico Gemelli, and there has been no shortage of speculation online. Among these, also the diffusion of an alleged image of the pontiff in hospital, published on March 6, 2025 on X.
Pope Francis and the hospital photo: generated with artificial intelligence?
The shot would show the Pope Francesco wearing his cassock in his hospital room, but experts immediately raised doubts.
Some details would in fact suggest that it is an image or photo in hospital generated with theartificial intelligence. Facta, a website specializing in information verification, would have analyzed every detail of the image, specifying: "the image is presented outside of its original context".
one of the most evident elements would be the right hand of the pontiff, resting on the bed, which would present six fingers. An anomaly that often characterizes images created with artificial intelligence software.
Some users would have shared the image with ironic intent, highlighting the obvious mistake of the extra fingers. Others, however, would have spread it without specifying the origin of the image, contributing to the confusion among users of the network.
Pope Francis and the AI-generated hospital photo, who created it?
La The first publication of the photo dates back to February 25th, on the Instagram account @schoolmagazine.mi, which in the caption would have specified: "Photo created with artificial intelligence", as also reported Facta. However, it would not be the only photo circulating online with a supposedly hospitalized Pope Francis.
The account @schoolmagazine.mi, specifies the same Fact, identifies itself as the "official account of the online periodical "School Magazine"", based in Milan. Therefore, it would seem that not have any connection with the “Fondazione Policlinico Universitario Agostino Gemelli IRCCS”, located in Rome, whose official Instagram page is «@policlinicogemelli».
No conspiracy, no mystery. Just a photo out of its original context. But confusion reigns supreme.
It would simply be a decontextualized image created with artificial intelligence that would have gone viral.
We hope that Pope Francis' conditions will improve and we await updates, relying exclusively on communications from official sources.