In an earlier post, I commented on how companies like ElevenLabs are beginning to force voice actors to sign away their voice rights to AI. Now, Levi Strauss announced an AI partnership with Lalaland a few days ago:
Today, LS&Co. announced our partnership with Lalaland.ai, a digital fashion studio that builds customized AI-generated models. Later this year, we are planning tests of this technology using AI-generated models to supplement human models, increasing the number and diversity of our models for our products in a sustainable way. […]
“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.” [italics mine]
Which perfectly illustrates what I recently wrote in my essay over at Medium on Artificial Intelligence, ChatGPT, and Transformational Change:
One reason why all this is not glaringly obvious is the dazzling and distracting bombardment with AI sideshow acts. Where endless streams of parlor tricks and sleights of hand are presented, from fake Kanji, robot lawyers, and crypto comparisons to made-up celebrity conversations, emails to the manager, and 100 ChatGPT Prompts to Power Your Business. Through all that glitter and fanfare and free popcorn, many people don’t notice—or don’t want to notice or profess not to notice—that the great attraction in the center ring is just business as usual, only that the acrobats have been replaced by their likenesses and no longer need to be paid.
Press releases like this I will call Minidiv or Minisus announcements from now on. Marketing the replacement of human models through AI not only as progress toward “diversity” but also “sustainability”—a term currently thrown around with regard to AI in marketing and PR like confetti—has the exact same vibe as Orwell’s Ministries of Love and Peace.
