Met Gala 2024

Photo causes a stir: This is NOT Katy Perry!

Is it her or isn't it her? Alleged photos showing Katy Perry at the Met Gala, which went viral on Tuesday, caused a lot of confusion. And not just among the singer's fans!

It's the fashion event of the year, and on Tuesday night everyone who's anyone in Hollywood was there. Only one was not there: Katy Perry! Or was she?

Even mom fell for the fake
Two photos circulated online on Tuesday showing the singer on the iconic carpet in front of the Metropolitan Museum in New York. In a gorgeous floral dress. And then even in another, elfin look.

Only: that's not Katy Perry at all! The viral photos were actually AI-generated images. And they were so good that even the singer's mom fell for the fake, as the 39-year-old has now made public on Instagram.

Perry not only posted the fake pictures of her online, but also a text message from her mother. "I didn't even know you were at the Met. Beautiful dress, you look like a rose garden," she wrote to her famous daughter and sent one of the fake pictures along with it.

"The AI got you"
The singer must have smiled. Her reply: "Mom, the AI got you!" The successful deception shows how good AI algorithms are at inserting celebrities into fake photos: The more pictures of a target person available for AI training, the more realistic the fake becomes.

In the comment to her post, Perry finally explained: "Didn't make it to the Met, had to work." As proof, there was a short clip of the real Katy Perry in the recording studio at the end of the picture gallery.