I was recently taken aback by a pair of photographs that popped up on my social media. One above, one below, they purported to show Radcliffe Square in 1907 and 1977, indicating the astonishing continuity of the Oxford architecture. Only the people in the photograph had changed, from top hats and suits into jeans and T shirts. At first I skimmed past it, then went back to look more closely. Of course, you saw this coming a mile off: the photographs were both AI generated. That particular view of Radcliffe Square does not exist.

What struck me about this tiny granule of fakery was that it was being used to demonstrate something that is, essentially, true. Radcliffe Square has changed very little in the last century, and visitors from 1907 would likely feel at home in it today. This reminded me of the admonitions of Jesus in the gospels against false prophets. There is no scholarly consensus as to whom these references denote, but one theory is that they were warnings against those who used the trappings of Jesus’ teachings for their own ends, exploiting the desires of the faithful. Rather than constructing falsehood, they corrupted the truth. In our society today, where desire is an even more powerful motivator, we too must be cautious of being led by false prophets into a corruption of what is good and true.