All the attention of the dozens of photographers on the carpet of the Met Gala in New York on Monday evening went to Katy Perry with her beautiful floral dress. But not really, because the singer was not present at all at the annual superstar ball. The images were created with artificial intelligence (AI). Millions of fans, and even Katy Perry’s mother, were fooled by it.
Perry shared the photos on Instagram, although it is not known whether she had the images created herself. Two lifelike fake photos, with the caption: “Couldn’t be at Met, had to work.” She then posted another video of herself in a recording studio, indeed working at the Met Gala. But the photos had already been shared widely on social media and viewed millions of times on X, where Perry’s ‘outfit’ was admired by fans and fashion accounts.
“Mom, be careful!”
The theme of this year’s Met Gala was The Garden of Time – to the fairy tale story about a count and countess who pick flowers and thus stop time. AI understood the theme well: Perry’s dress resembles a fairytale flower bed. “I shared this because I thought it was true,” says a Perry fan under the singer’s revealing Instagram post. Perry also shared a screenshot of a text from her mother that says: “I didn’t know you were going to the Met Gala? What a beautiful dress.” To which Perry replied: “Mom, AI got you too. Look after!”
This year, there seemed to be more stars parading around at the Met Gala that weren’t actually there at all. One appeared next to Perry https://twitter.com/KingFemoux/status/1787743977996747204, dressed in a huge embroidered dress with flora and fauna. But Rihanna was according People Magazine at home with the flu. And early in the evening, photos circulated on social media of Grammy-winning singer Dua Lipa’s outfit – which was actually there – but this dress was different from the outfit she was later photographed in.
Every year, millions of eyes look at the stars on the (this year thematic green) carpet at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The Met Gala is the world’s most prestigious fashion event. Actors, singers and models are dressed as extravagantly or as controversially as possible, in keeping with the theme. For example, in 2018 Rihanna came dressed as a kind of glamor Pope during the theme Heavenly Bodiesand Kim Kardashian walked during the America theme in 2022 in the original dress worn by Marylin Monroe.
AI-generated fake photos are more often discredited. The best-known examples of this are a photo of Pope Francis in a white trendy hoody jacket or fake photos of Trump around the time of his arrest.
Also read
Flowery fashion, butterflies and ‘naked dressing’ during the Met Gala, or the ‘Oscars of fashion’
To share
Email the editor
