Photos of the singer that purported to place her at the high-fashion event started circulating Monday -- with a couple of X users randomly throwing these shots into the mix ... and hoping no one would notice they were totally fake.

Well, for a little while ... their plan worked, 'cause folks recirculated the images -- which seemed to picture KP in a couple different floral-esque outfits. Eventually, folks caught on.

Give credit where credit is due, we suppose ... because yes, they do look very real indeed.

One of the photos -- which has upwards of 9 million views -- shows Katy in an elaborate dress that certainly matches the theme of this year ... Sleeping Beauties/Garden of Time. However, many noticed that the colorway of the stairs was totally off ... they were pink.

This year's stairs are actually more so blue/green ... so another photo cropped up quickly. That, too, looked pretty legit ... but users started picking it apart just as fast as bunk.

As of now, there's no evidence Katy herself is at the event -- in fact, the last time she was at the Met Gala was way back in 2022 ... when she was rocking a black dress on a red carpet.

Of course, with AI Katy making the rounds online ... the pics started to go viral -- and many are stunned by how authentic some of these computer-generated images are starting to become. In the era of artificial intelligence ... digital misinformation is ripe and aplenty.

Anyway ... it's just another example of the modern world turning even more upside than it already is -- but on the topic of real-life stars who were actually on the ground in NYC ... they looked damn good. And we'll even say this ... AI Katy also looks pretty freakin' posh.

No harm, no foul really -- especially since KP herself was in on the joke, liking the pics.