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AI tech generates entire bodies of people who don't exist

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Re: AI tech generates entire bodies of people who don't exist

#31
post #25
post #4

would this mean that outside of runway models, you wouldn't need models to showcase your clothing anymore since you can just "wrap" your clothes over these AI humans?

Somehow they'll have to find a way around lookalikes. A real human who believes the rendering is actually their image and likeness. So they'll have to have a way to prove that there was no "contamination". Funny enough, there was a case[1] of a real person thinking a model on a website was him but it turned out the image was that of an altogether different person that just looked like them, uncannily. For illustratio…

I can imagine the liability of _not_ having a human to say "this is me" miiiiight keep this from becoming a go-to for big brands.

Or we could put it this way: a corporation might see this as a choice between A) creating a whole new branch of case law to test in the court system, fueled by highly paid lawyers, or B) just pay a part-time model to be able to say "this wasn't you nor inspired by you, because that's the the model and we entered this contract together"

Re: AI tech generates entire bodies of people who don't exist

#32
post #31
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Somehow they'll have to find a way around lookalikes. A real human who believes the rendering is actually their image and likeness. So they'll have to have a way to prove that there was no "contamination". Funny enough, there was a case[1] of a real person thinking a model on a website was him but it turned out the image was that of an altogether different person that just looked like them, uncannily. For illustratio…

I can imagine the liability of _not_ having a human to say "this is me" miiiiight keep this from becoming a go-to for big brands. Or we could put it this way: a corporation might see this as a choice between A) creating a whole new branch of case law to test in the court system, fueled by highly paid lawyers, or B) just pay a part-time model to be able to say "this wasn't you nor inspired by you, because that's the t…

There will definitely be cases, if this becomes mainstream. I’m sure the companies developing this will come up with a solution proving “independent” genesis of the image/likeness.

Re: AI tech generates entire bodies of people who don't exist

#33

While AI models might replace catalogue models for small labels that are starting out (maybe) and for e-commerce companies (definitely). I highly doubt it that they will replace real models for large companies and fashion boutiques now or ever. Because what people (women and men) are buying is aspiration wrapped in dead plant fibers. The reason why I buy a dress from Hervé Leger is because I want to look like old sch…

I both agree and disagree.

> Because what people (women and men) are buying is aspiration wrapped in dead plant fibers

In this case I agree. If someone buys the watch that Elon Musk wears, it's not just about wanting to look like Elon, it's about want to BE him. This effect works even if rationally people know that they are not him. Emotionally, they just want the feeling, however fleeting, that they are him.

> The suspension of disbelief necessary for the social economy to function crumbled as soon as something is too perfect.

Here I disagree and the example of fake Instagram profiles are my counter point. Some of these accounts used real people but the entire "lifestyle" was faked and yet they still had thousands and thousands of followers. What's the difference between creating a fake person to drop into that fake profile and having it be a real person?

Re: AI tech generates entire bodies of people who don't exist

#34
post #4

would this mean that outside of runway models, you wouldn't need models to showcase your clothing anymore since you can just "wrap" your clothes over these AI humans?

I don't think this will work because the AI is not going to recreate what a specific article of clothing will look like on a human. Or at least not yet.

This tech generates random images of models in random clothing. Maybe it could be instructed to do 'male' and 'brown' and 'jacket' - but never with the specificity required of a specific piece of clothing.

All clothes fit and drape in a unique way.

Also - models for regular clothing are a commodity and the process for getting generic imagery is industrialized and cheap.

Getting the 'photos of clothing on the model' is a small part of the cost.

Finally there is of course the other aesthetic choices, i.e. what's in the background that have to do with a particular design choice for whatever reason i.e. season choices. That won't be reproduced by AI either.

So it's all very cool, but still mostly novel.

Re: AI tech generates entire bodies of people who don't exist

#35

I'll bet one could use GANs now to generate high res textures for 3D models. Say for video games or other 3D renders. In various styles too. BRB next startup idea.

This has already happened to some degree. The technique is so easy, kids out there are using it to immediately renovate old games overnight https://www.theverge.com/2019/4/18/18311287/ai-upscaling-alg...

Re: AI tech generates entire bodies of people who don't exist

#36

While AI models might replace catalogue models for small labels that are starting out (maybe) and for e-commerce companies (definitely). I highly doubt it that they will replace real models for large companies and fashion boutiques now or ever. Because what people (women and men) are buying is aspiration wrapped in dead plant fibers. The reason why I buy a dress from Hervé Leger is because I want to look like old sch…

Fully agreed.

One side effect of that is that while modeling has always been very hard to pierce into, at least there are modeling opportunities for non celebrities. As the practice of using AI to generate models for all but higher end stuff grows, it will get harder and harder to pierce into. It’ll go from an industry with tens of thousands of workers - some paid a lot, some much less - to just a few hundreds of highly paid models who have every incentive to prevent newcomers from taking their spot.

It’s not a phenomenon unique to fashion, and it’s entirely problematic when tech kills the long tail of this sort of occupation. How will those people pay their bills now? Not all of them can become AI engineers, that’s for sure.

Re: AI tech generates entire bodies of people who don't exist

#37
post #5
post #2

My arch enemy; tiny low res thumbnails strikes again!

Although there is one higher res image available, which is better than usual. Of course it's high enough res to show that there's visible artifacting. But this is pretty impressive. I wonder if an easy hack would be to train a second separate neural network to clean up the kind of artifacting that you get out of the first neural network...

My understanding is that this is exactly how these images are generated. One network makes the image, and another tries to find flaws... They both get better together.

Here's the first 2 Google results for "GAN" meaning "Generative Adversarial Network"

https://skymind.ai/wiki/generative-adversarial-network-gan

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generative_adversarial_netwo...

Re: AI tech generates entire bodies of people who don't exist

#38

While AI models might replace catalogue models for small labels that are starting out (maybe) and for e-commerce companies (definitely). I highly doubt it that they will replace real models for large companies and fashion boutiques now or ever. Because what people (women and men) are buying is aspiration wrapped in dead plant fibers. The reason why I buy a dress from Hervé Leger is because I want to look like old sch…

At the point where you can't distinguish between real/organic and generated, this argument collapses though.

What feels "human" can be manufactured. Imperfections can be artificial, too.

We like to believe we're flawless arbiters of what's human, but we can be fooled in almost all cases. Most of all in photos. The soul remains an abstract concept.

Re: AI tech generates entire bodies of people who don't exist

#39

While AI models might replace catalogue models for small labels that are starting out (maybe) and for e-commerce companies (definitely). I highly doubt it that they will replace real models for large companies and fashion boutiques now or ever. Because what people (women and men) are buying is aspiration wrapped in dead plant fibers. The reason why I buy a dress from Hervé Leger is because I want to look like old sch…

Completely disagree.

You buy the dress because you want to convince yourself you look like old school Crawford or you want others to be convinced that you look like old school Crawford.

The point of models 99% of the time is to show the clothes. This isn't going to get rid of super models, but it's going to step on the turf of all but the most popular models.

Re: AI tech generates entire bodies of people who don't exist

#40
post #36

While AI models might replace catalogue models for small labels that are starting out (maybe) and for e-commerce companies (definitely). I highly doubt it that they will replace real models for large companies and fashion boutiques now or ever. Because what people (women and men) are buying is aspiration wrapped in dead plant fibers. The reason why I buy a dress from Hervé Leger is because I want to look like old sch…

Fully agreed. One side effect of that is that while modeling has always been very hard to pierce into, at least there are modeling opportunities for non celebrities. As the practice of using AI to generate models for all but higher end stuff grows, it will get harder and harder to pierce into. It’ll go from an industry with tens of thousands of workers - some paid a lot, some much less - to just a few hundreds of hig…

> How will those people pay their bills now?

The same way the luddites paid theirs I suppose

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