In two photos taken for H&M fashion retailer, Mathilda Gvarliani seems to be presenting a white tank and jeans top. The pictures look like the same shot, but one of the photos shows the real Gvarliani, and the other is an artificially handled image of it.
She was published this week in fashion business, an industry news agency, one of the images shows that Mrs Gvarliani is holding her waist zone and the other shows her “digital twin” with her hands crossing and looking at the camera.
In all the two pictures he reads an excerpt from Ms. Gvarliani: “It’s like me, without the jet lag.” Ms Gvarliani is one of more than two dozen models that H&M is working this year to create digital copies for use on the company’s social media platforms and marketing campaigns, the publication said.
H&M, Swedish retailer, is the last company to pursue a trend that has upset some of the fashion industry. As the use of images created by artificial intelligence, critics have raised concerns about the impact on models and other independent contractors, such as hair stylists and makeup artists, who are part of the workforce that makes a photo shoot.
The company is in an exploratory phase of the project, said Hacan Andersson, a spokesman for H&M.
“We are simply considering what is possible and do it in close cooperation with other creatives in the industry, organizations and models themselves – which have complete control when the” digital twin “will be used and of course it will be paid when it is used,” he said.
Jorgen Andersson, H&M’s chief creative employee, said the company would maintain a “human-central approach” to technology.
H&M was “weird to explore how to present our fashion in new creative ways – and embrace the benefits of new technology – while remaining true to our personal style commitment,” he said in an online statement on Thursday.
The fashion workers’ law, a new law in force in June in the New York State, is expected to address some of the concerns about the use of AI by providing protections in models, including the requirement of transparency and digital copies.
Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal, a sponsor of the bill, said the labor law would “protect fashion models from financial abuse and use of their images without their consent”.
Other states and some European countries have laws concerning individual rights regarding their digital copies, but the New York law is specifically oriented to models.
Some models have complained about the discovery of unknown persons illuminated in their bodies or that they do not control their finances.
“I think part of the impressive H&M Digital-Twin campaign is that the digital representation of the model is indivisible,” said Sara Ziff, a former model and founder of Model Alliance, defense team. “It raises questions about consent and compensation and also has the ability to replace a series of fashion workers.”
The Alliance, which provided information on the law in New York, said that there were cases where the models had their genetic images AI used without their knowledge or consent and without receiving compensation. The new law says that modeling agencies cannot have the power of a lawyer through a digital copy and must receive a Model’s written consent of how it is used and paid.
Models produced by AI are generally either fictitious representations of human models or digital copies, which are images of real technology redefined people, such as “digital twins” H&M.
The use of these digital publications in the lucrative fashion industry has been developing for years, as world retailers are trying to balance the brand’s appeal with transparency and cost.
In 2011, H&M went beyond the heads of real computer -produced mannequin models for an online swimsuit campaign. In 2023, the Denim brand, Levi Strauss, said she would use AI technology to publish more images of a series of body types, but added that she would not be limited to using live models.
Last year, the Mango fashion brand presented a campaign for a teenage series of clothes, using the AI technology that Jordi Alex, head of IT technology, said in a statement “will make us more human or not”.
In this newsletter, Model Alliance said it is evaluating the H&M plan, which includes examples of other models next to their digital clones, while presenting optimistic excerpts, such as the one attributed to Ms. Gvarliani for her digital twin.
“Finally a way for me to be in New York and Tokyo on the same day,” the Yar Aguer model said, combined with the digital twin.
Asked on Friday if the models had really said these words, a H&M spokesman said: “I can confirm that they are really excerpts from the models.”
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