"My clone will allow me to work harder without exhausting myself or spending money on travel."
On March 25th, Business of Fashion (BOF), the leading digital portal in the fashion world, released a bombshell: the multinational clothing company H&M is creating digital doubles of 30 real models for its advertising campaigns. The company Uncut, in collaboration with the Swedish giant, has been tasked with digitizing the entire image using AI of real-life models down to the smallest detail, in static or moving positions, with multiple facial expressions and from different angles, so that the system is sufficiently powered to replicate and predict their movements and expressions in future projects. Once the models are duplicated, they will only have to wait to be paid for future jobs their clones perform, but without lifting a finger.
According to H&M, this paradigm will aid the creative process and optimize resources. Furthermore, these digital models will be a very timely marketing claim now that the fast fashion is suffering a worrying slowdown in sales and needs to reposition itself, since the emergence ofultra fast fashion from brands like Temu or Shein. But what resources will it optimize? Clearly, the salaries of professionals it will no longer need, such as photographers, art directors, stylists, lighting technicians, or makeup artists. Professions that, if they are already suffering precarious situations right now, this latest phase puts their future completely at risk. H&M has also committed to using this new resource responsibly, respecting the models' image rights and duly informing consumers when they are in front of virtual models. But, if the fast fashion It has been characterized precisely by irresponsibility in matters of sustainability, human rights, and intellectual property. How can we believe that in this case they will act ethically?
Although this is the first time the fashion world has used clones, brands like Levi Strauss & Co., Hugo Boss, and Mango Teens have already used digital models—that is, models created not from a single real-life reference but from multiple images stored in Big Data—to create an artificial model with no correspondence in the physical world. One of Levi's arguments was that these new technological models would offer greater diversity in body types, ages, and skin tones. But if companies are looking for models with a more realistic representation, wrapping themselves in the much-worn and unbelievable banner of diversity, wouldn't it be more consistent to use real models? Because these clones and digital models clearly don't age or deteriorate, and if diverse body types are required, they will have to be constructed. Rather than responding to a genuine desire to diversify bodies, this ends up creating multiple aesthetic stereotypes (mature, racialized, with functional diversity, etc.) that are equally impossible to achieve.
The influencer American Morgan Riddle spoke out on social media against this new practice: "We must invest more human creativity, not progressively eliminate it. Without soul, art, creativity and humans, fashion is just fabric." However, on the contrary, model Mathilda Gvarliani has stated that this new paradigm will benefit her profession, as it will allow her to accept jobs that overlap with time and work more without exhausting herself or spending money on commuting. In reference to her clone, she stated: "She's like me, but without the... jet lag".
At the beginning of the AI revolution, we were told that it would help society and take care of repetitive and easily automated tasks, since creativity, inherent to human beings, could never be replaced. But the reality is different. As has happened in previous revolutions, technological advances always prevail despite the reluctance of a large part of the population and the debates we may have. And, in this case, digital models will almost certainly become a reality in the very near future.
