These viral images of Katy Perry, Rihanna and Lady Gaga at the Met Gala aren’t real

On May 6, celebrities from around the world attended the annual Met Gala, hosted at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. The event was hosted around the newest exhibition, “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion,” and the official dress code of this year’s gala was “The Garden of Time.”

The Met Gala has been dubbed fashion’s biggest night, where the stars attend in custom couture outfits. Soon after the celebrities arrived on the carpet in their themed ensembles, photos of them emerged on social media and galleries were shared by major magazines.

These images of Katy Perry, Rihanna and Lady Gaga stood out on social media because they weren’t spotted in any live coverage from the gala. In each photo, the respective entertainers are seen wearing elaborate dresses that match this year’s theme.

The images have racked up millions of views, but some people in the comments questioned if they were real. 

THE QUESTION

Are the images of Katy Perry, Rihanna and Lady Gaga at this year’s Met Gala real?

THE SOURCES

• VERIFY analysis of the images
• The Metropolitan Museum of Art on Instagram
• Katy Perry on Instagram
• Reports from Harper’s Bazaar and People

THE ANSWER

No, the images of Katy Perry, Rihanna and Lady Gaga are not real. They were created with artificial intelligence. 

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WHAT WE FOUND

These photos of Perry, Rihanna aren’t real. They are images created with generative artificial intelligence programs that allow users to enter a prompt and generate images. 

In order to confirm the photos were created with AI, VERIFY considered two main items from our checklist for spotting content created using generative artificial intelligence software.

1. Look for red flags that indicate the photo isn’t realistic
2. Confirm through other reliable sources

Generative artificial intelligence software struggles with adequately creating small details, like the shape of hands, facial features and textures. There is often distortion or misshapen figures in generative AI images. 

That is the case with each one of the examples we have from the Met Gala. 

In the images of Perry and Lady Gaga, both are missing their right arms. The people in the background of both images also appear distorted. In both examples, some of the photographers’ facial features in the background are misshapen. 

In the Rihanna example, a man appears in the corner of the image but doesn’t appear to have a face.

In each of the examples, the carpet the entertainers are standing on is also different. In actual photos from the Met Gala posted by the The Metropolitan Museum of Art on Instagram, the red carpet was cream in the middle with a green lining. The flowers on the hedges that border the carpet are white.

That is not consistent with any of the carpets seen in the fake images. The carpet Perry is standing on in the AI-generated image is nearly identical to the carpet from the 2018 Met Gala.

The flowers in the background also lack texture.

After confirming the images had indicators they were created with AI, we cross-referenced the social media accounts for each entertainer to see if we could find any posts about them attending the Met Gala. Perry, Lady Gaga and Rihanna did not share any photos of themselves at the event, and all of them said they couldn’t make it this year.

Perry actually posted the AI image of herself and wrote, “couldn’t make it to the MET, had to work.” On the third slide in the Instagram post, Perry shared a text conversation between her mother and herself.

“Ha Feather! Didn’t know you went to the Met What a gorgeous gown, you look like the Rose Parade, you are your own float lol,” her mom wrote. 

Perry replied, “lol mom the AI got you too, BEWARE!”

Rihanna told People magazine that she had the flu. And Lady Gaga told Harper's Bazaar that she was already booked that night. 

These AI-generated images of Beyoncé also made the rounds on social media. The singer hasn't attended the Met Gala since 2016.