AI can't steal your fashion job and fix sustainability, or can it?
The Dos and Don'ts of responsible AI in Fashion.
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Last winter, I found myself at the headquarters of one of the biggest fashion brands, and during lunch, as we were eating salmon and roasted vegetables, a senior designer looked me in the eye and asked, 'Will AI take my place'?
There is no escaping the ongoing debate on design and AI. The promise of automation, speed, and self-proclaimed intelligence is both seductive and scary. It resonates deeply within the fashion industry, igniting a dialogue around the potential for cost-cutting and acceleration, and more profoundly, how AI might amplify or redefine creativity in a field traditionally celebrated for its human touch.
Young fashion designers are particularly drawn to these questions, as they grapple with the implications of AI for their future jobs in the fashion industry. Recently, I had the pleasure of supervising two graduate projects that looked into the integration of generative AI in fashion design, asking: What does it mean to design fashion with AI?
The first project, Algorithmic Seams, dove deep into ethical exploration, culminating in a manifesto that seeks to guide other designers through the labyrinth of possibilities — collaboration, and exploration — while cautioning against the potential risks and threats of AI integration: systemic bias, opacity, and the murky waters of authorship concerning visually borrowed or repurposed work. The second project framed gen AI as a miraculous fix for all sustainability challenges, particularly when synergized with 3D design tools. Somehow, both projects overlooked a crucial aspect: the tangible, material essence of AI and its implications for sustainability.
When discussing emerging technologies like machine learning and their role in fostering sustainable development within the fashion industry, a question arises: Can AI make fashion more sustainable? The thing is, there is no straightforward answer to this question. First of all, it's crucial to acknowledge the paradox that AI itself contributes a significant carbon footprint, thereby affecting environmental sustainability. This impact is not static; it intensifies with every new Midjourney prompt or ChatGPT interaction. Furthermore, it's essential to clarify our understanding of sustainability and pinpoint the exact challenges we intend to tackle.
AI's potential applications are vast, touching on areas such as optimizing production, enhancing supply chain management, improving communication, and innovating design processes. However, the relationship between this technology and the multi-layered nature of the fashion industry complicates any straightforward assessment of AI's problem-solving capabilities. It's a nuanced issue that demands precise questioning.
In the context of generative AI, we've observed intriguing uses, anticipating its transformative effect on the design, consumption, and co-creation of fashion. Its creative and collaborative potential is immense, but it also raises critical questions about authorship, intellectual property, and the sources of data fed into these models. Currently, there's a lack of transparency, leaving us unsure about the origins of the designs these models are based on.
As we don’t know what we are weaving together, the risk of cultural appropriation becomes very high. And this is something that has been openly discussed in fashion for years, pointing at cultural sustainability, who is being represented, and how. In fashion communication, replacing human models with AI-generated ones is a heated topic. One of the leading companies in this space is lalaland.ai, an agency offering AI-generated models, aiming to “diversify the fashion industry and challenge the status quo when it comes to inclusivity, sustainability and innovation”, as per their website. This approach significantly intersects with representation politics, posing the danger of substituting the fashion industry's call for diversity with computer-generated content. The risk of incidents like digital blackface is alarmingly high.
In her brilliant book "Atlas of AI," Kate Crawford unveils the hidden costs of artificial intelligence, ranging from the consumption of natural resources and labor to impacts on privacy and freedom. She emphasizes the need for transparency, accountability, and a deep understanding of the planetary impacts of AI. Importantly, Crawford proposes visualizing AI not just as an abstract concept but as a tangible, material network that impacts our physical world. This perspective urges us to consider the environmental, labor, and ethical implications of AI. The reality is that the seemingly instant magic of generative AI is underpinned by the extensive use of natural resources and significant human labor involved in training the models.
We need young designers who will experiment and establish best practices, considering how we can implement AI to enhance the industry without repeating its past mistakes. On the other hand, we also need regulations and policy. The blend of these efforts from the bottom up and the top down can lead to more responsible approaches. Technology inherently tends to replicate human biases and mistakes; thus, our challenge lies in harnessing it to correct or enhance our existing creations. In the end, it is up to all of us how we integrate emerging technologies to transform fashion - hopefully for the better.