H&M to use digital clones: Are Indian models ready for digital doppelgangers?

Next time you scroll through H&M’s website for shopping, you may be taken by surprise because the models posing in the picture won’t be real but AI-generated. The fast fashion clothing giant H&M is chalking out a strategy with models and their agencies to create digital doppelgangers of 30 models that they will be able to use as AI-generated images for purposes such as social-media posts and marketing campaigns. These models will be owing the rights to their twins and will be able to let other brands use them too. This is receiving a mixed response from the fashion fraternity. If Indian e-commerce and retail brands follow suit, what will be the pros and cons of it? We speak to modelling agencies and models on the introduction of their digital dupes.

“The predicament here is that AI companies can use our digital dupes without our knowledge and we won’t even get paid for it,” opines model Angad Bishnoi.

“A leading Indian retail chain brand booked me on a budget for a catalogue shoot but ended up using my AI-generated photos for their lookbook as well on their website. Catalogue shoots cost less as compared to lookbooks and they only paid me for one job, which is unethical. I felt cheated but couldn’t do anything about it, “ says model Vaibhav Anand, who has been modelling for more than a decade.

IP lawyer and strategist Safir Anand says that while the AI laws are still being worked upon, an individual can always take legal actions or take it up on social media if a brand uses the model’s images without his or her permission. “This thing comes under the Personality Rights, where it grants an individual the control over the commercial use of their identity like names or image. So it is important for the models also to do a formal paperwork and see where all their shoot images are getting used,” he says.

Founder of Anima Creatives, Gunita Stobe strongly detests AI models in fashion. “Why do we need AI Models? Why do we feel the need to replace human being’s creative beauty and output with stale AI-generated images? The beauty of having a real live model, a real photographer is that there is a human connection, and the model can convey a story with her eyes. This is what sells a product. They say that the eyes are the window to the soul, and I very much believe that an AI image will never be able to convey that emotion or give the same depth to an image or film. You will have soulless images trying to sell products. How much can you really be attracted to buy anything? Authenticity sells, and you will never get authenticity with AI,” she says.

“No matter how advanced these AI tools become, we can’t replace them with the originality that a fashion campaign brings when shot on real-life models with the help of an entire team that involves a creative director, photographer and makeup artist. AI can’t take away a model’s job completely. It can however make the industry more saturated and that also might affect the model’s budget,” opines designer Jenjum Gadi.