The annual Met Gala organised by Anna Wintour is dubbed as fashion's biggest night. This time around, several celebrities like Zendaya, Sydney Sweeney and the Kardashians made a stellar appearance with their outfits. Several, however, opted to stay out, including Katy Perry and Rihanna. But when pictures of their appearance at the 2024 Met Gala started circulating on the internet, some fans were confused, to say the least.
How Deepfakes Fooled Fans
Rihanna had opted to stay out of this year's Met Gala due to a last-minute case of flu. The pictures of her hair dyed pink for the event were circulated around the internet. So when the picture of Rihanna wearing a white floral gown and a dramatic halo went viral, fans were quick to call it out as fake. Turns out, it was an AI deepfake, one of the first instances of deepfakes about the Met Gala. Rihanna was wearing a massive halo with floral embroidery that was in line with the theme while still giving out the impression of something Rihanna would wear.
Another more troubling case of deep fakes fooling people was the case of Katy Perry, who has said that her mother was fooled by an AI picture of her at the Met Gala. In an X post titled, "Katy Perry. That's it", Katy Perry was shown wearing a white dress with forest tones and elements. In another post, she was wearing a corset with a green skirt made of vines.
Katy Perry has commented that her mother couldn't identify that this was a deepfake, complimenting Perry on how good she looked. However, she liked both the posts, which have garnered millions of views and likes.
A similar incident happened to Lady Gaga, where a deepfake of her wearing an extravagant, layered gown went viral. Since Lady Gaga has been known to wear show-stoppingly dramatic outfits before, fans were slow to catch up to the fact that this was AI-generated.
AI deep fakes of the Met Gala outfits prove that the line between reality and AI is blurring day by day. While several have called out the ethics of circulating deep fakes for views, they have undoubtedly become a part of our reality. If anything, all the people who liked these posts and believed in them are testimony to this.
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