AI is changing everything, and fashion is no exception

“No way I’m surviving the future of technology,” is the viral Chrissy Teigen response to the image of Pope Francis in a Balenciaga puffer — perhaps the biggest case of misinformation since OpenAI’s ChatGPT brought artificial intelligence into mainstream focus last November. I concur. It gets scarier by the day.

Despite the brouhaha, there were a few telltale signs that the image was fake from the get-go. Chief among them is the very simple fact that Pope Francis is known for his unassuming style of dress. He often wears plain white cassocks and black shoes and has been wearing a simple pectoral cross instead of the more elaborate versions worn by previous popes.

His style of dress reflects his focus on humility, modesty and a commitment to living a life of service to others. Among other things — like the fantastic lighting and glossiness of the image — the pope in a Balenciaga puffer should have signalled to many that something was amiss, and yet, just like you probably don’t realise that 50% of the introduction to this piece was written by AI, many of us were fooled into believing the image was real.

Herein lies the perils of artificial intelligence (AI), and why many, including Silicon Valley leaders, are urging a moratorium on the technology, citing “risk to society”, as one Reuters report puts it. The group of experts and industry executives, including Elon Musk, are calling for a six-month pause in the development of systems more powerful than ChatGPT and Midjourney, the AI image generator one construction worker from the Chicago area in the US, used to create the viral fake images of a swagged-out Pope Francis.

Late last month, Levi’s announced that it was partnering with Lalaland.ai, a studio that creates AI-generated models, to “supplement human models” and increase diversity. The clothing company, known mostly for its denim, said in the announcement that “AI technology can potentially assist us ... unlocking a future where we can enable customers to see our products on more models that look like themselves, creating a more personal and inclusive shopping experience”.

It seems a moot point. Why use AI to increase diversity, when you can simply — I don’t know — hire a diverse cast of humans to achieve the same thing?

The Levi’s move is predictably attracting a lot of criticism considering issues of diversity in fashion have often been the centre of controversy, but it also worsens fears that the machines will soon wipe out a lot of jobs across industries, and fashion is no exception.

Granted, there are many ways in which AI can be used to improve things like supply-chain management, and so forth, but even then, many are already pointing out that the use of AI to predict trends and sales, for example, in a way no different to how the likes of Netflix use algorithms to predict what consumers want to watch, could lead to the decimation of creativity in fashion. Why hire designers who can only base their work on instinct, some research and their imagination, when AI can tell you exactly what is most likely to sell in a matter of minutes?

Considering how slow governments around the world have been, and remain, in addressing the prevalence and ubiquity of misinformation that we now know to be deeply divisive and dangerous, something tells me there’s very little we can do to stop the many, unpredictable ways in which AI technology will upend many industries, fashion included.

I’m probably being naive here, but I do believe the type of connoisseurship that has historically defined luxury fashion consumerism is the single biggest factor driving even conglomerates towards sustainability efforts.

Here’s to hoping that, in the same way that climate change and demands for sustainability are forcing us to reassess the meaning of luxury, when the novelty of AI wears off, what we consider luxury will further take on a new, more human-centric meaning.