Could models go out of fashion?
If you remember the Sony World Photography award being snapped up by an AI generated image, you wouldn’t be alone in questioning whether real models still have a place in ads and magazines.
From the perspective of brands, replacing models with AI certainly has its allure. Paying professional models for a photoshoot can be expensive – especially if you go directly to a modelling agency.
“I think it enables retailers to do more because if you think of a retailer and all their costs, the pressure on gross margins, it is a tough industry and they don’t have the ability to do multiple photoshoots,” points out Koukoravas. “AI allows them to create 10 different versions of a photoshoot that would not have been done anyways, because the cost would’ve been too high.”
Nevertheless, physical models continue to be the inspiration for AI, which means models still have a stable catwalk to walk on. As regulation governing AI is still drafted, Koukoravas notes models can still raise intellectual property as a defence to claim their place in the spotlight.
Photoshoots using generative AI would still theoretically need the approval of models or their agencies as it is still their image appearing on the ads – even if they didn’t pose in front of the camera for that particular ad.
“We, the artists, are saying AI is kind of copying our work because it can learn what we do and then just replicate it, and that’s a difficult question on where the line is,” says Koukoravas. “But AI is a great tool and you certainly don’t want to stop its progress with some really regressive intellectual property laws.”
If anything, the leading role of creatives and models in the fashion industry is still safe from a technological takeover. Generative AI is trained based on the data it is fed, which is still protected by creative licences.
The outcome, therefore, might be that AI will be used as a tool to speed up the creative process and sprout inspiration, rather than a replacement for human creativity.