Tag: levi’s
The Margin: ‘Digital Blackface’? Levi’s gets pushback for using AI models to add diversity.
Levi’s to use AI models to ‘increase diversity and sustainability’
Artificial intelligence has been a hot topic with the advent of programs like ChatGPT and Midjourney, and brands are (unfortunately) getting in on it. This week, the iconic denim company Levi’s announced its partnership with AI studio Lalaland.ai, which creates AI-generated fashion models. Levi’s plans on testing the use of these models to “supplement human models, increasing the number and diversity of our models for our products in a sustainable way,” it announced in a press release.
Lalaland.ai apparently generates “hyper-realistic” models of varying body types, ages, and skin tones. According to its website, companies Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger have also worked with the studio.
“While AI will likely never fully replace human models for us, we are excited for the potential capabilities this may afford us for the consumer experience,” said Dr. Amy Gershkoff Bolles, an executive focused on emerging tech at Levi Strauss, in the presser.
This time last year, Levi Strauss laid off 700 employees, or 15 percent of its workforce, amidst restructuring at the company. According to USA Today, the cuts allowed the company to save $100 million a year.
Levi’s also claimed in the announcement that its diversity efforts will go beyond using AI models, noting that it’s focusing on working with content creators in front and behind the camera who are “reflective of [their] broad consumer base.” It’s unclear, however, how this initiative coalesces with the use of fake models instead of paying real models, make-up artists, and photography staff.
The company’s desire to move towards AI-generated models is emblematic of other industry attempts to replace real people with AI. In August of last year, Capitol Records signed, and then subsequently fired, AI rapper FN Meka. The virtual rapper was terminated amidst calls that the character promoted “gross stereotypes” of Black culture.
Levi’s will ‘supplement’ human models with AI-generated fakes
Levi’s is partnering with an AI company on computer-generated fashion models to “supplement human models.” The company frames the move as part of a “digital transformation journey” of diversity, equity, inclusion and sustainability. Although that sounds noble on the surface, Levi’s is essentially hiring a robot to generate the appearance of diversity while ridding itself of the burden of paying human beings who represent the qualities it wants to be associated with its brand.
Levi Strauss is partnering with Amsterdam-based digital model studio Lalaland.ai for the initiative. Founded in 2019, the company’s mission is “to see more representation in the fashion industry” and “create an inclusive, sustainable, and diverse design chain.” It aims to let customers see what various fashion items would look like on a person who looks like them via “hyper-realistic” models “of every body type, age, size and skin tone.”
Levi’s announcement echoes that branding, saying the partnership is about “increasing the number and diversity of our models for our products in a sustainable way.” The company continues, “We see fashion and technology as both an art and a science, and we’re thrilled to be partnering with Lalaland.ai, a company with such high-quality technology that can help us continue on our journey for a more diverse and inclusive customer experience.”
Levi’s claims, “AI will likely never fully replace human models for us” (note the qualifying “likely”). But I can’t help but see this as the first step in a dystopian slow walk toward automating the industry. As AI-generated “photography,” art and writing grow ever more convincing, we would be naive to take corporations at face value when they insist moves like this are about PR-friendly principles like celebrating diversity and looking out for the environment. At the very least, it’s awfully convenient that those high-minded motives also let them mass-produce something that previously required hiring people.
Levi Strauss reportedly began a 12-to-19-month process of cutting around 800 jobs — almost 20 percent of its corporate workforce — last year. It was part of a restructuring plan to save about $75 million to $100 million annually.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/levis-will-supplement-human-models-with-ai-generated-fakes-190011557.html?src=rss