Monday night’s “Garden of Time”-themed Met Gala was home to some of the biggest names in music, film and fashion — even if some of the stars weren’t actually there.
DailyMail.com spoke to two superfans of pop star Katy Perry, whose work with AI image generators so vividly ‘imagined’ what Perry would have worn to the gala that they even fooled Perry’s own mother.
“I plan to continue creating content that inspires and enchants fans, without disrespecting the image of the artist,” Brazilian fan “Sali” told DailyMail.com about his work.
Sali — who also created a creepy AI fake of Billie Eilish at last night’s gala — knows his work is “sparking debates about ethical AI use,” especially in an election year that has already seen AI-spoofed Biden robocalls and AI images of Trump supporters have been spotted .
DailyMail.com has spoken to two superfans of pop artist Katy Perry, whose work with artificial intelligence (AI) image generators ‘imagined’ what Perry would have worn to the gala. The finished product was so vibrant that fans even made fun of Katy Perry’s own mother
Brazilian Katy Perry fan ‘Sali’ told DailyMail.com he knows his work is “igniting debates about ethical AI use”, especially in an election year. But this sincere and devoted Perry fan hopes there will still be the freedom to create ‘positive and admirable content’ with advanced AI
But this sincere and devoted Katy Perry fan hopes there will still be freedom to create “positive and admirable content” with the shockingly advanced technology, as he explained to DailyMail.com the artisanal process he used to spot his fakes to make.
Sali, a nickname for the AI image maker whose first name is Gustavo and who wishes to remain private, explained that his process involved more than creating an AI prompt.
“She was created by AI on Bing,” Sali told DailyMail.com, “and then I remastered everything and added her face.”
Launched in March 2023 as a new feature for Microsoft’s search engine Bing, Copilot designer helps users ‘create pictures of words with AI’.
The tool, while powerful, is far from perfect according to Sali, who describes Bing’s offering as “one of the best AIs for creating looks” and ideal for “generating creativity.”
“Bing’s attempts to generate an image are varied until I reach the result that I consider perfect,” he said.
Once the app has produced some compelling images, Sali turns around Leonardo.AIa Sydney, Australia-based generative AI start-up, for refinement.
“It’s an AI that adds quality and realism to the image,” said the Katy Perry fan. “So after I generate the image with Bing, I send it to Leonardo, who adds skin texture and realism and then makes final adjustments in Photoshop.”
Brazilian Katy Perry fan Sali is also into creating AI images of other celebrities. “One edit that caused quite a stir was Billie Eilish’s at the recent Met Gala,” he told DailyMail.com
Social media feeds were full of AI-created fakes pretending to show images of the rich and famous at the 2024 Met Gala, including this lifelike image of Rihanna (above). However, this Rihanna image was not taken by Sali or his fellow fan Kauán
Using Adobe’s proven image and photo editing package, Sali explains, he can subtly correct facial proportions on his AI Katy Perry, sometimes inserting real photos of her face into the AI-generated image, “editing them as necessary.”
‘In addition to Katy, I also edit the faces of other celebrities. One edit that caused quite a stir was Billie Eilish’s at the recent Met Gala.”
A fellow Perry fan, Kauán, who goes by @wanthatoo on Elon Musk’s social media site X, told DailyMail.com he was allowed to play a minor role as “part of the creative process.”
Kauán told DailyMail.com via a Portuguese translation that he was excited and relieved that Katy Perry herself seemed to retroactively give her blessing to the project, giving X posts of Sali’s AI images a ‘Like’ on the platform.
“Using artificial intelligence edits, in this case made by fans, isn’t necessarily harmful, right?” Kauan said.
“However, it is clear that it has the potential for harmful use to society,” the fan admitted, “with deepfakes, child pornography creation, political use […] etc!’
While Katy Perry posted a screenshot of her conversation with her mother, who had fallen for the viral images, thinking her daughter had attended this year’s Met Gala (left), and warned her to “BEWARE,” she ended up giving her AI -imaging fans a tacit ‘Like’ of approval (right)
“Receiving Katy Perry’s endorsement was satisfying and motivates me to move forward, aware of the responsibility I bear,” Sali told DailyMail.com of the silent sign of trust.
The songwriter also posted a screenshot of her conversation with her mother, who fell for the viral images because she thought her daughter had attended this year’s Met Gala.
“lol mom, the AI has you too, BEWARE!” Perry texted back, based on the screen recording.
Surprised by the commotion and attention, Sali said: “I feel very happy, but at the same time very scared of the scale it has reached.”
“It was very, very… crazy,” Sali told DailyMail.com.
While he personally finds this new era of hyper-advanced and hyper-realistic AI imaging “incredible,” he understands that his ethically motivated approach is not the only one being adopted.
‘On my profile I dedicate all my edits to Katy Perry. I just try to praise her beauty and create concepts, avoiding sexualization,” Sali said.
“I understand it may cause discomfort for some, but I am committed to creating positive and admirable content.”