Even Katy Perry's mom fell for that viral AI Met Gala photo

Stars, they’re just like us… sometimes their moms fall for AI-generated images on Facebook. Katy Perry had to give her own mother a little lecture on the dangers of internet trickery, when she got an incredibly sweet text saying that she “look[ed] like the rose parade, you are your own float” on the Met Gala carpet last night. The thing is, Katy Perry wasn’t anywhere near the Met on Monday. She was in the studio recording something new, according to a post on her Instagram. (Sorry Katy fans—the sound is muted.)

Perry’s mom had fallen for a series of AI-generated images that swirled around the internet last night, showing the singer in two separate looks that frankly would have outdone a lot of the actual gowns on display had they been real. Sure, those vines look way too smooth in the first picture and the carpet isn’t even close to correct in the second, but we’d imagine it’s pretty easy to miss those things when you see the undeniable face of your daughter in a really beautiful dress. It’s not like this was one of those shrimp Jesus photos, and even those continue to trick people somehow.

“lol mom the AI got you too, BEWARE!” Perry responded to her mom in a screenshot she shared of their text exchange (via Instagram). But in her mom’s defense, the photos tricked a lot of potentially more internet-savvy folks as well. A tweet reacting to the deception has over 60,000 likes as of this writing, and it’s not the only one. What seems to be the original photo, from a user called @jxries, has over 314,000.

Perry wasn’t the only artist to get the AI stylist treatment last night. Photos of Rihanna in a large circular gown and Dua Lipa in a ruffled corset and bow also did the rounds, racking up similarly frightening like and view counts. (In what should strike a little fear into the hearts of designers, these looks are also arguably better than a lot of the real ones.) Dua Lipa did turn up later in a completely different Marc Jacobs number, dispelling some of the speculation around her photo. Rihanna, on the other hand, was at home in bed with the flu (via People) and definitely not carting around a giant, bird-covered marshmallow

In many ways, this feels like yet another example of AI officially surpassing any feasible point of containment. If it can trick your own mother, its ability to trick everyone else is a very real fear. Still, if you descend too far into this particular panic attack, here’s something of a lifeline: in 2019, Perry attended the Met Gala dressed as a hamburger. AI has come a long way, but only a human mind could come up with something as dazzling as that.