The National Office of Buddhism on Tuesday (Nov. 7) sought assistance from the Thai Cyber Police after discovering inappropriate content related to Buddhism on Facebook, Thailand's news site Thaiger reported.

Generated by AI

The content in question was generated by artificial intelligence (AI), and depicts Buddhist monks partaking in activities such as playing in a rock band and racing on motorcycles.

The images went viral on Facebook.

Harmful to the reputation of monks

These images are deemed harmful to the monks' reputation and have caused discomfort among the Buddhist community, said Suphat Mueangma, the head of the Secretariat of the Buddhist Association and spokesperson for the NOB.

Suphat said that a letter had been drafted to the Cyber Police requesting assistance to take down these images and to launch an investigation into the source of the content, Thaiger reported.

He added that there is an increase in the use of AI to generate images that defame the monastic community and could potentially create misunderstanding among those who see these images.

Suphat stressed that it is highly inappropriate to utilise AI to create and circulate images of monks behaving in a defamatory manner.

Earlier in March this year another AI-generated image caused a stir, when pictures of Russian President Vladimir Putin dressed in monk's robes went viral, with the claim that he had "embraced Buddhism." Both were false.

Top image via အညတရ ဘိက္ခု/Facebook and Hyosung Hong/Facebook