The Met Gala 2026 is here! And as we all commit ourselves to being couch critics, we’re noticing the hardest part of opening social media is deciphering whether a celebrity red carpet arrival is real or AI.
In the past few years, the surge of AI images has taken a tricky turn. Before AI, the running joke of Jason Derulo falling down the Met Gala steps was just misinformation from a past carpet made to get laughs and engagement. But with the rise of AI use, we’re seeing deepfake red carpet imagery that is quite impossible to differentiate on first glance.
The 2026 Met Gala theme is “Costume Art,” highlighting the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s spring exhibit, which pairs nearly 400 garments with art objects over 5,000 years to explore the dressed body. The official dress code is “Fashion Is Art,” encouraging guests to treat the body as a canvas with looks that interpret art history, such as Classical or Renaissance themes.
So seeing an influx of AI images on a night celebrating art can feel quite frustrating. In 2024, an AI image of Katy Perry on the Met Gala carpet went viral, only for people to realize it was AI shortly after.
And this year is no different. As we all try to get our fashion fix, there are a few ways to avoid getting tricked by AI images tonight. First, the BBC suggests focusing on the details. “AI images are produced using data taken from other photos, so AI programs often struggle with details you may see less frequently in other pictures.” You should also be wary of images that look too perfect. And lastly, Google Reverse Image Search can be your best friend.
Trying not to get duped by the latest viral AI image is tricky, but the real treat is spotting the fake and finding out what your favorite celebrities are actually wearing on the carpet.
Aiyana Ishmael is the style editor at Cosmopolitan magazine. In her work, Aiyana focuses on the culture of fashion and how it intertwines and shapes the zeitgeist. She is an award-winning journalist from Miami, Florida, and a graduate of the historically Black university, Florida A&M. She is a 2024 Forbes 30 Under 30: Media honoree, and her debut romance novella PASSING GAME is set to release March of 2027 (831 Stories/Simon & Schuster).
