2026-09-20T23:22:28.549Z
- publishedAt:
Not provided→ 2026-01-05T00:00:00.000Z
SOURCE-LINKED INTELLIGENCE
Reported AI Impersonations of Pastors Used in Online Donation and Influence Scams
Religious communities in the U.S. and abroad reported the circulation of purportedly AI-generated videos and cloned audio impersonating pastors and church leaders, including Father Mike Schmitz, to solicit donations and spread incendiary sermons. The impersonations reportedly leveraged synthetic voice and likeness tools and were distributed via platforms such as TikTok, Facebook, and messaging apps. Some content remained unlabeled as AI-generated and was treated as authentic by viewers.
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- recordType
- incident-report
- evidenceStatus
- reported
- region
- Global
Reported occurrence date: 2026-01-05T00:00:00.000Z
Evidence & attribution
- AI Incident Database
- AI Incident Database · 2026-01-05T00:00:00.000Z
AI Incident Database, Responsible AI Collaborative; McGregor (2021), Preventing Repeated Real World AI Failures by Cataloging Incidents. Incident-specific contributor credits are available at each citation link. Metadata adapted; article text excluded.
License: CC BY-SA 4.0
First collected: 2026-09-19T22:50:59.123Z. This is not the publication date.
Observed changes
AIIC observation times, not verified publisher revision times. Up to eight recent revisions.