Even Katy Perry's mom fell for an AI photo of the singer at the Met Gala

• Katy Perry was falsely depicted attending the Met Gala via AI images on social media.

• AI images also made it look as if Rihanna was there — despite her being at home with the flu.

• Welcome to the year of the semi-decent deepfake.

Katy Perry didn't wear a luxurious deep-V gown with fabric moss at the end, nor did she sport a tight corset dress at Monday's Met Gala.

But images of both looks took off on social media, and Perry's mother congratulated the singer over text for looking like "the Rose Parade" in the gown.

Perry was nowhere near the star-studded Fifth Avenue event, which she has attended on and off since 2009. After this year's images started gaining traction on social media, she posted a video from her studio, wearing a tight, leather-looking outfit.

Perry's mom and plenty of people like her watching the event on social media fell for the images, which appear to have been created with generative artificial intelligence. The singer highlighted the fake photos and her mom's credulity in an Instagram post on Monday. The post came a month after Perry joined more than 200 other artists in calling for tech companies and developers not to use AI tools to replace songwriters and artists.

This is the year generative-AI-enabled deepfakes have hit the mainstream, including robocalls with imitations of President Joe Biden and fake explicit photos of Taylor Swift. No US federal law prohibits deepfakes — media such as photos, video, or audio showing people doing or saying things they did not. The Federal Communications Commission bans AI-generated voices in robocalls, and some states prohibit deepfake pornography.

Perry wasn't the only celebrity deepfaked at the Met Gala. A small Twitter account posted an image that appears to show the longtime Met queen Rihanna smiling from the gala's carpet, draped in a forest gown with an expansive top.

Like Perry, Rihanna was nowhere near the event — she was sick with the flu, her representative said. And like the Perry images, Rihanna's fake picture shows a different carpet than the actual cream-and-blue Met Gala floor, a telltale sign of AI's interference.

The images of Perry and Rihanna are lighthearted. But deepfakes pose a real threat to voters and to everyday people caught up in situations with malicious actors, such as romance scams and workplace disputes.

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