The uncanny ways AI crawls into the arts
With more AI, there’s less humanity / Designed by Linda Montejo Bartolon
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How many times has Artificial Intelligence showed up on social media? How many interactions do we have with AI? It’s practically everywhere, and it has gone deeper into the art industry. When AI started being used in paintings and portraits, I tried to tolerate it. But now it’s in the fashion and the entertainment industries. In this day in age, it’s impossible to avoid AI now.
Vogue’s August issue included AI-generated models for a Guess ad that were produced by Seraphinne Vallora, the leading AI marketing agency for fashion and luxury brands. The two models were Vivienne, a blonde, and Anastasia, a brunette. Vivienne wore a striped dress that matched her purse. In another photo, she had golden heart earrings and a necklace. She holds her blue floral dress with one hand and a cream purse with small flower designs in the other. Anastasia has a white dress and purse. Her look is completed by her thin heart jewelry.
The controversy was intense, especially on TikTok. A few videos with thousands of likes displayed their anger at Vogue, claiming it lacked creativity and took away jobs from people that would express themselves better than AI.
One video, by TikTok user @clemm_vrg, posted a video with the song “American Pie” by Don McLean. The creator recorded themself flipping through the August issue with the caption “The day modeling died” as they zoomed in into each AI-generated model.
The models were only included because Paul Marciano, the co-founder of Guess, asked Vogue to do so. Marciano started using AI models when he stumbled onto Seraphinne Vallora’s instagram page, claiming that the AI models had Guess girl vibes.
Despite the reasoning, many readers felt betrayed and concerned about the beauty standards and lack of creativity. TikTok user @pognamauricio posted an edit of people’s reactions to the August issue. It was a unique way to critique the lack of creativity in a field meant to be creative. The edit contained the song “Let Down” by Radiohead. It started with clips of people’s disappointed reactions and once the lyrics “And one day, I am gonna grow wings” started playing, the video transitioned to iconic moments in the fashion industry such as runway shows, behind the scenes of photoshoots, clips of sketches being drawn and models wearing colorful clothes.
This video highlighted the need for humanity in the arts, and how unnatural it is for AI to take on more human roles. It’s one thing for people to use the technology for inspiration and planning, but it is another to use it to create a project by itself and include AI-generated people.
AI as a whole cannot and will not fully grasp creativity and passion. AI-generated models won’t fully express their love for fashion just how Tilly Norwood, a generated actress, can’t properly express emotions in her acting.
I first heard about Norwood while scrolling on social media and saw a video of her acting. The top comments criticized her skills. I didn’t know who Norwood was at the time, but I could see why people didn’t like her acting. Her facial expressions would stay the same for too long and seemed unnatural.
Norwood’s career started in the comedy sketch “AI Commissioner,” which is 100% AI-generated. She was created by Eline Van der Velden and her company Particle6. Van der Velden believes that people will soon accept AI-generated actors since there is already so much AI-generated content on social media and other platforms.
Yet, people on social media seem to disagree. Many TikTok users can only talk about how uncanny AI-generated actors are. TikTok user @ameliareedbryant made a video stating, “Yeah, you can ‘hire’ Tilly Norwood or you can hire the human actors whose likeness was stolen in the creation of Tilly and aren’t in this business for fortune but do it to connect to other humans through story.” Bryant highlighted the humanity found in acting and its necessity. As an actress herself, she added her own professional photos and audition clips.
Bryant’s video was the perfect juxtaposition to Norwood’s casting call video, which was posted late August on Instagram. Bryant represented emotions and passion, while Norwood highlighted that she is an actress that can do it all. Her caption showed the preference of profit over passion.
Norwood received so many comments opposing the idea of AI actors that Van der Velden posted a statement on the company’s Instagram last September. She explained that Norwood wasn’t a replacement for real actors since she represents experimentation, which showcases how creativity is still being used in AI characters.
I find her statement difficult to accept because of how creativity is being used. Van der Velden compares it to writing a character or a role, but people expect the creativity to be showcased by everyone involved in a project, which won’t happen if AI is involved. The technology can’t be seen as an artist or creative because it lacks decision making skills and self-expression.
Norwood and other AI-generated people are made in the image of real people and can’t make decisions in the arts, which is why their acting won’t be revolutionary to the industry. On the other hand, real actors have opinions, can get involved in script writing and change the representation of the character they portray, just as Jenna Ortega did with Wednesday Addams.
Films can receive heavy criticism if the story and plot are great, but the acting is terrible. Thus, Norwood’s ability to play any character or be in any situation is useless for the arts if she can’t express the right emotions. Similarly, while AI-generated models can wear clothing in any place and have the look or vibes that are perfect for a brand, they won’t model the clothing as well as real models would because it won’t represent how it looks on a real woman.
Therefore, we need to be careful with AI use in the arts before it becomes normalized and completely shifts the industry; filled with AI generated content and “creators” who don’t understand creativity and passion.