Many Christians have recently rejoiced to hear the famous artist, Ed Sheeran, perform a song about redemption and God’s work in our lives. However, the clip in question published a few days ago is not real since it is a video generated by artificial intelligence.
“Jesus lift my soul higher, break my chains, let me fly.” Here is an excerpt from the praise song entitled “Jesus lift my soul” supposedly performed by Ed Sheeran and published on YouTube about ten days ago.
It is indeed a fake video, more precisely a video generated by artificial intelligence. The clip is a set of real images and others directly generated by AI. The most stunning thing is the singer’s “fake” voice which is impossible to distinguish from the real one. This type of clips created by AI to manipulate photos or depict real people is called “deepfake”.
In any case, many YouTube users have fallen for this. Many were delighted to see Ed Sheeran “singing the name of the Lord of Lords”. “God is taking big steps!” wrote one user, while another said he was “blown away” to see the name of Jesus being raised by the English star.
While this fake worship video may seem harmless, the British government has promised to crack down on deepfakes. It was in particular the English Minister of Justice, Alex Davies-Jones, who recently declared that the perpetrators of these offenses will “face the full force of the law”.
Camille Westphal
