NZ fashion faces AI reckoning after Huffer allegations​

A model claimed the brand used AI to generate his likeness in a marketing campaign, shining a light on an industry-wide issue.

Caption:Model Elijah Timmins-Scanlon accused Huffer of using AI to generate images of his likeness for marketing campaigns.Photo credit:supplied

A New Zealand model has accused streetwear brand Huffer of using artificial intelligence to create images with his likeness in a marketing campaign without compensation. The allegation has cracked open the issue of cost-cutting using AI in a struggling industry stung by a series of high-profile brand closures.

Last week, Elijah Timmins-Scanlon accused Huffer of using AI to mimic his likeness in marketing images. He said the brand didn't offer him any additional compensation or renegotiate the original contract for previous photoshoots, which he claimed formed the basis for the alleged AI-generated images.

Huffer’s managing director, Kate Berry, said the brand utilised AI in various ways throughout its business, and its marketing campaigns have been “computer-assisted” for three decades. She told RNZ the likeness of the model in the image was a coincidence, but did not respond to follow-up questions via email as to who the model in question was, if not Timmins-Scanlon.

Timmins-Scanlon’s agency, Red 11 Model Management, backed his allegations. However, the issue isn’t one brand. It's one example of an industry-wide reckoning with many brands using AI to reduce marketing costs, said Mandy Jacobsen, the owner of Red 11.

The allegation

Timmins-Scanlon said he was scrolling through Huffer’s marketing images and noticed pictures of someone who looked like a mash-up of himself and his brother, who had also modelled for the brand. However, it was an image neither of them had posed for. The industry in New Zealand was so small, Timmins-Scanlon said, that he would know who the model was if the image were of a real person.

“I'm not completely against AI, and I'm not surprised," he told RNZ.

“...It was inevitable that it was going to be introduced, but it was just how they've done it, which is the issue.”

Berry from Huffer said the image was part of a campaign that was photographed and filmed on Waiheke Island. She acknowledged Huffer leveraged AI in fashion forecasting, to assist in designing stores and for a range of other tasks.

“Welcome to the new age; the technologies that every company is using is the new age of computer-assisted design.”

She later added that “we do not take people’s faces. That is not a thing".

How AI is impacting models

Jacobsen from Red 11 said a handful of clients have gone ahead and manipulated images of the agency’s models using AI without permission from the models or additional compensation.

“We're happy to have conversations with clients if they say, ‘Look, I'm going to do AI, I'm going to shoot him, but I'm going to AI a lot of images, and this is where we intend to go.

“Then we have a conversation about, ‘Okay, that's cool. We need to work out what's a fair compensation for him'.”

AI could be useful in creating marketing campaigns for fashion brands as long as they are upfront with the agency about what they want to do, said Jacobsen. Recently, a Red 11 client asked if they could use AI to superimpose clothing onto a model because some of the samples had not arrived from overseas factories. The agency agreed and negotiated an additional fee on behalf of the model.

Two weeks ago, Aliah Morpeth, another model with Red 11, signed a contract with a client that allowed them to use AI to essentially dress an existing image of her with dozens of garments. To photograph that many garments would have been about three days of work, Morpeth explained.

“That was the first time I have ever sat down and thought, 'Oh, this could really impact my work'.”

Morpeth said not only does this take away the income of models, but she was concerned AI-generated models could put beauty standards further out of reach. She said the modelling industry had been rightly criticised in the past for this, but AI-generated models bump the issue into a new dimension.

“You have to be transparent around if you are using an AI-generated model because you're perpetuating quite literally unrealistic standards.”

The pros and cons of AI in the fashion industry

The ripple effect of AI-generated campaigns doesn't just impact models. They can cut out the need for photographers, makeup artists, stylists and assistants. Nixing all that could potentially save a brand tens of thousands of dollars annually - or more - depending on its size, according to Jordan Gibson, the founder of New Zealand streetwear brand Checks Downtown. Certain businesses were cashing in on that and others were not, he added.

Gibson used AI to do “grunt work” to improve efficiency, but not for design or in marketing campaigns.

“If you are a creative person, then it frees you up to be more effective in the kind of creative parts of running a fashion business - that's my general personal thoughts.”

There was a spectrum of how brands use AI, according to Steve Ballantyne, founder of BrandIQ, an AI design studio in Auckland. He briefly consulted with the staff at Huffer about two years ago on the possibilities of AI for the fashion industry.

He said a few New Zealand brands used AI to generate virtual backgrounds behind an image of a real model. This saved on location and travel costs. He compared it to the green screen technology adopted by the film industry decades ago, which too was met with backlash by some.

“The savings are so considerable, and the speed to market in terms of content workflows is so exponentially faster that it's irresistible, really, for many brands.”

BrandIQ recently created a radio commercial with many key elements created with AI, including the voice and the jingle. The use of AI shrunk a week-long process down to hours, Ballantyne said, adding there were still plenty of humans involved in the project.

While many brands lent into AI use, some would establish themselves as anti-AI, which could become part of their branding, Ballantyne said.

“There are brands starting to emerge that have that kind of human-made mark on them.”

One client of Red 11 informed the agency that they have created a policy against using AI to manipulate images of models, a decision informed by market research showing the public’s distrust of AI, said Jacobsen.

Because AI was developing so rapidly, many brands were still figuring out what their moral stance was towards the tech and what reflected the brand's ethos, said Gibson.

“I've noticed... people looking for things that feel real. And even if there's a bit of human error involved, that's sort of appreciated because, you know, it's the kind of thing that AI can't replicate.”

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