AI-generated images of Jesus Christ have now infested social media platforms as AI continues to get mixed in with religious posting.
What started as an epidemic on Facebook has started spreading across other platforms like X (formerly Twitter), YouTube, and TikTok.
While seemingly innocent at surface level, these depictions of Christ present a much more worrying future of popular social media in the advent of generative AI.
AI Jesus Epidemic: How it Started?
There is no singular point where and when the AI-generated images of Jesus Christ originally started.
It is not because the first image is already gone, but rather it was likely buried with the surge of similar posts all across the internet. At this point, it is difficult to discern which platform the trend even originated from.
One ongoing trend, however, can be discerned from the images that emerged throughout Facebook and YouTube, and at a smaller similar fashion on TikTok and X: all posts encourage engagement.
Since then, several news outlets and even influencers have covered these images as they continue to spread across other platforms.
AI-Powered Religious Doom Posting
If there is one visible impact the introduction of generative AI has brought to the religious side of social media, it is the surge of doom posting.
Over the past months, more posts signaling the "end of the world" and supposed associations of world leaders to the Devil have surfaced, many of which use generative AI to depict the alleged problems.
Generative AI is already a concern with the upcoming elections, it is not hard to see how the technology can be used to influence voters' perception through posts tinged with religious imageries, no matter whether it is true or not.
AI Jesus Epidemic: What Can We Do?
If there is one thing regular social media users can do, it is to prevent these posts from spreading to users more vulnerable to these online campaigns.
A clear first step is to report the accounts and posts to either have them clearly labeled or removed from the platforms.
It is also recommended to not interact with these posts directly to reduce their exposure to the algorithm through the number of engagements.
Of course, such methods are incomparable to the number of similar posts flooding the platforms with AI also being used to automate the spread of the AI Jesus army.
Without the social media companies themselves taking action to resolve these issues, primarily before the election, it is not far to imagine that we may see more AI-generated images of Jesus Christ in the future, more grotesque and incomprehensible.
