Welcome to Rendering, a Deadline column reporting at the intersection of AI and showbiz. Rendering examines how artificial intelligence is disrupting the entertainment industry, taking you inside key battlegrounds and spotlighting change makers wielding the technology for good and ill. Got a story about AI? Rendering wants to hear from you: jkanter@deadline.com.

The Met Gala has always been a preposterously gaudy spectacle, but there’s an insurgent new guest on the New York red carpet that has raised the stupidity stakes for all: AI. 

The baroque fancy dress party for the world’s elite has been hijacked in recent years by viral fake photos, meaning already barely believable looks are being confused with outright fabrications. Open Instagram or X/Twitter, and it is genuinely tricky to distinguish between the two, thanks to the ever-increasing sophistication of modern AI models.

I myself was a victim. I pegged as fake Cardi B’s dress, which to me resembled a giant intestine. It was, in fact, a Marc Jacobs creation. On the other hand, I had to search trusted media to establish that Lady Gaga did not attend the Met Gala in an iconic Thierry Mugler dress. 

Millions of others may have been fooled by the Met’s “Fashion is Art” theme. Dua Lipa brandishing Botticelli‘s The Birth of Venus? Fake. Kendall Jenner’s Greek statue-inspired fit has more than 3M views on X alone, except her real dress (a GapStudio look inspired by Winged Victory of Samothrace) was rather less literal. Not to be confused with Heidi Klum, who did actually mould herself in a marble-like costume, evocative of the Veiled Vestal sculpture. Do keep up.

Even AI was fooled by AI. I put fake images into Google’s AI search tool, and hey presto — I was told they were legit photos from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. My Anya Taylor-Joy search (see screenshot below) linked to coverage of the Met in trusted media outlets, including the BBC, making Google’s inaccurate results appear credible.

AI’s degradation of cultural and creative institutions is now just part of the price of admission, but it’s difficult to imagine Anna Wintour looking kindly upon the AI slop that is becoming synonymous with the Met Gala. “Truth is, no one can do what I do,” she might say, Miranda Priestly-style. Except now they can — using text prompts. 

So would it surprise you to learn that many of the fake Met Gala photos that entered the internet’s bloodstream overnight originated from an account embraced by the fashion industry? 

RickDick, a self-styled digital artist, dropped two batches of AI-generated Met Gala photos on his Instagram. Within less than 24 hours, they have generated nearly 900,000 likes and been shared widely on other platforms. They include Pedro Pascal in a suit inspired by Keith Haring, the distinctive American artist and AIDS awareness activist. And my personal favourite Met Gala forgery: Jared Leto as a balloon dog (he turned up as a cat in 2023, making the AI image all the more plausible).

Otherwise known as Italian creator Riccardo, RickDick has worked with Moschino and United Colors of Benetton on ad campaigns, and is followed by the likes of Met Gala attendee Gwendoline Christie on Instagram. In short, he’s no stranger to the world inhabited by Wintour’s guests.  

Answering Deadline’s questions over email, RickDick talks about his work as art in its own right, rather than an engagement grift. He had a “lot of fun” with the Gala’s theme, and agrees the fundraiser is easy to spoof using AI because “extravagance is expected.” Indeed, Sarah Paulson attempted to satirise this by wearing a dollar bill mask to denote being “blinded by money.”

“I like the idea of making people smile, but also sparking curiosity and conversation. If an image can do both, then it’s doing its job,” he writes. “I shared them in advance [of the event starting] precisely to make it clear they weren’t real images from the event itself. The work plays with perception, but it’s not about deception.” 

Having said this, his posts do not conspicuously declare that they are AI-generated. Stripped of a timestamp, they are being shared as the real deal on other social networks. He also spoofed Rihanna’s dress post-gala. RickDick says he’s had some positive responses, but also some complaints, which have resulted in him removing content “when it wasn’t appreciated.”

Ultimately, he thinks that the Met’s oeuvre is “already operating beyond everyday reality,” so in this sense, perhaps AI is the perfect bedfellow for an event that flaunts style over substance.