This may be the first profession to be subverted by AI

The model in front of you is wearing a white T-shirt and medium length denim dress, revealing a standard professional smile. If the image appears on a certain treasure, it is likely to be submerged in a colorful scene and mechanically scratched by our fingers.

If you stop and take a closer look, you may feel something is wrong. Her limbs are slightly stiff, and the shadows under her neck are a bit strange. Her boots look like inferior Barbie dolls. Yes, this is not a perfect AI model, but it will become more and more realistic in the future.

I am a model and I know that AI will eventually replace my job.

Three years ago, Canadian model Sinead Bovell wrote this article for fashion magazine Vogue. Now, her prophecy seems to be coming true.

AI models are killing crazy

This AI model is from the denim brand Levi's.

In March, it reached a partnership with AI modeling company Lalaland and plans to launch AI generated models this year.

Authenticity is currently not in one dimension, and AI models are competing with humans in terms of speed and diversity.

According to Lalaland, the inspiration for AI models comes from real people, but is generated by AI.

They can be customized in all aspects, including hairstyle, body shape, skin color, posture, emotions, etc., and the entire process takes less than 5 minutes.

More AI modeling companies are thriving like mushrooms after rain.

Start-up company Botika has launched an AI modeling service with a planned monthly fee of $15, mainly targeting small businesses. It is still in the start-up stage and the waiting list has reached below 1000.

In the video on the official website, a photo covering the face was placed on the head, and the silly operation focused on a silky slide:

Gone are the days when a single model was suitable for everyone. Simply click a button to change the model based on facial expressions, skin color, hairstyle, background, and more.

The AI content generation website ZMO has a good schematic of wrinkles and tactile effects, but there are no shadows that make the background too fake. At present, only waiting lists are open, and the promotional copy really wants people to queue up overnight:

You can put your product on the model in just a few minutes, not a few weeks!

DeepAgency, a Dutch start-up, is also known as the "AI photo studio and model agency" with a high profile.

Their service sounds very affordable and beautiful: they pay $29 per month, input prompt words, adjust backgrounds, lenses, poses, and so on, and then generate models using AI.

To be fair, the generated images are both hard and plastic flavored, and the price is even more expensive than ChatGPTPlus.

Looking back to China, many e-commerce practitioners are also using AI tools such as StableDiffusion to explore independently, and even developing AI model changing systems based on these tools. As early as March, someone created highly completed AI model images.

Before Xiaohongshu, there was a popular search: "Is this the first profession to be subverted by AI?" It was about Taobao modeling.

But in the view of Simon Chambers, a senior executive at a modeling agency, the usefulness of AI models is still very limited, with neither emotions nor creativity:

AI models are most suitable for appearing in basic images for reference, rather than marketing or promotion that builds relationships with customers.

Currently, most AI models can only follow the basic line of mid to low end models, but what is important is the possibility of the future. Even if they are crude and shoddy, they have already begun to commercialize.

The successor of the original artist and Hollywood screenwriter

The reason for the continuous rise of AI models and startups is simple: there is demand, there is supply.

Hiring professional models is a significant expense for small and medium-sized enterprises. TracyPorter is an individual who runs a clothing brand. In order to save money, she personally went on to become a model. She had previously hired short-term photographers, models, hairstylists, and makeup artists, but one shot would cost $5500.

The e-commerce practitioner "Lang Pig Grey Head", who was the first to explore AI models in China, also said, "This year we don't need to spend 40 to 50 million days hiring photographers and models to shoot clothes... it's completely enough for us to use

The e-commerce business heavily invaded by AI is precisely the most reliable source of income for models. Not to mention complete replacement, the emergence of AI has given the market more choices, which may lead to a decrease in human treatment. Hollywood screenwriters and original artists are a lesson from the past.

Hollywood screenwriters are protesting against AI's participation in creation, fearing not that AI will replace them, but that editors themselves will be forced to rewrite the junk content generated by AI even though they can write better, and their salaries will also depreciate in the process.

Similarly, many original artists have become AI artists, and the first party feels that the images have already been generated. The original artist only needs to make a simple repair, which has pushed the price very low, resulting in a much lower hourly salary for the repair.

Some people now believe that instead of using immature AI models, it is better to directly hire new models, as the average time and cost may not necessarily be higher.

AI models not only affect human models, but the cloud of unemployment hangs over the entire industry chain, affecting makeup artists, hairstylists, photographers, and even creative workers.

Vogue's spring magazines in Brazil and Singapore have used tools such as MidJourney and Dall-E to feature AI models on their covers.

AI is proving itself that it can engage in both e-commerce photography and challenging fields such as fashion magazine covers.

The first to bear the brunt must also be the obscure models who are seen as "substitutes" for AI models. In many places, including the United States, models belong to independent contract workers. So, when the wave of AI models hits, they may find it difficult to get protection.

This is what OsaKeyes, an AI ethics scholar at the University of Washington, said. Ordinary models, photographers, and artists are particularly susceptible to the influence of generative AI because they lack structured power:

If DeepAgency and other applications are effective, they will further kick out the already unstable position of creative workers and transfer money to such startups, making profits more concentrated.

On the contrary, supermodels dressed up to attend MetGala and active on the red carpet and big shows can temporarily rest assured that their personal image still has value in the face of technology.

A few years ago, the CGI model was a reference. They are dressed in Prada, Dior, and Gucci, imbued with personality through stories fabricated by humans, creating rich commercial profits.

CGI model LilMiquela

We can completely change her appearance, from hair, clothing, makeup, posture to a virtual environment, with just a click of a button

Convenience is one thing, whether fans accept it or not is another. People may no longer believe that 'there is a picture and a truth', just like facing the 'arrested' Trump or the 'down clothed' Pope. In MetaHuman's comment section, a fan left a message saying:

Miss your soul and the light shining in your eyes.

There are voices of support for AI models, as they are a shortcut to showcase more faces, skin tones, and body shapes.

Part of the reason why Lalaland CEO Michael Musandu started his business is that he found it difficult to find the right model himself:

As a boy who grew up in Zimbabwe, I rarely see people who look like me in photos, advertisements, or shows.

But the diversity of AI models is also questioned by people in the fashion industry.

Levi's, who announced the introduction of AI models, was brought to the forefront of the situation. People are angry that this large company, with sales of $6.2 billion in 2022, talks about achieving diversity but is unwilling to directly hire diverse models.

Levi's response to the crisis will not reduce the on-site filming of human models. The role of AI models is to supplement rather than replace them. When each product is taken by one or two human models, they are responsible for adding to the cake and producing more diverse photos faster.

This statement does not have much persuasiveness for the model who has been caught up in the vortex.

In fact, it is precisely marginalized models such as people of color and oversized models who are most susceptible to the wave of automation, as they are more likely to engage in lower level jobs and have fewer options to choose from.

According to the Vogue Business Size Inclusion Report, only 0.6% of the styles displayed during last autumn/winter fashion season (including New York, London, Paris, and Milan) were in large sizes. In March of this year, the Melbourne Fashion Festival was criticized for lacking disabled models.

However, ironically, brands overlook the true minority and use AI models to represent them. Professor Richard Lachman of Toronto City University believes that this trend is unsettling:

The brand hopes to create models that look socially appropriate, including various skin colors, body types, and races, but it is creating an idealized illusion. AI is not a real person, they actually lack diversity and increase the number of positions.

At the same time, AI models themselves are also influenced by biases in data and algorithms, which then exacerbate certain biases.

Vice reporter Chloe Xiang found that DeepAgency generates blonde white female models by default. To change the appearance of the models, additional words such as race and age must be added. So there is a possibility that among the thousands of additional AI images, women of other hairstyles and races will be even rarer.

So, some experts suggest that AI models should be equipped with a diverse behind the scenes team, including marginalized human models who provide paid filming to compensate for the shortcomings of demographic data in the fashion industry. But there is also a gray area that comes with it: who truly owns this data.

When we explore the various impacts of AI models on the fashion industry, we cannot avoid the question of Canadian model Sinead Bovell:

Seeing diversity is a good thing, but who has benefited and who has automation?

Joseph Schumpeter's "creative destruction" may provide an answer: the arrival of a new invention, such as the emergence of electricity and appliances in the 1880s and 1920s, was like a strong wind blowing through, changing various industries and the entire economy.

On the one hand, new technologies will eliminate certain types of commerce and industry that are widely present in the economy; On the other hand, new technologies and industries have replaced those that have collapsed.

Cheaper, faster, and more diverse AI models can certainly endorse minority groups, but the benefits are often not for these groups themselves, at least they cannot directly benefit, and the benefits are more likely to belong to the technical elite.

In the long run of history, technology will benefit humanity and benefit everyone. But in the short transition period, someone will act as a silent price, like tears disappearing in the rain.