Levi’s to use AI-generated models to “Increase Diversity” | Hacker News Reader

Levi’s to use AI-generated models to “Increase Diversity”

petapixel.com

32 pointsSLHamlet29 comments

Alternate title: Levi's to replace minorities with computer-generated pictures.

> Alternate title: Levi’s to replace minorities with computer-generated pictures.

To be fair, that wouldn’t increase (even apparent) diversity. They are replacing non-minorities with computer-generated pictures that look like minorities.

I think OP is getting at the replacement of the potential models who Levi's would need to hire

That is assuming that they would make the same image-related changes if doing it required hiring more actual minorities, which is purely speculative.

I'm still wondering how diversity is important to this story about replacing models with avatars.

… in order to, primarily, save money.

(I assume human models get paid??)

The point of a model putting on the clothes is being able to see the cut of it. What's the point of seeing it on someone my shape or size or skin tone if it's merely the AI's guess at how it would look?

If the AI model’s guess is good, and it can generate a model that is more similar to you than the models they have at the studio that day, the value prop seems obvious

Honsetly, trying to understand clothing fit via online pictures has already been a crapshoot.

Also that's only half the point. The other half is manufacturing desire, showing beautiful people in the product

When I read the title I was just blown away by the stupidity.

2023: PoC almost achieve social equality, get prestige jobs as models and actors, promptly replaced with AI generated avatars.

Seems tone deaf to me.

I wonder if this means they will have an equal number of all permutations of possible person? Or if it just means it’ll be representative of society’s mix (in the environment where they are selling the product)?

Not unlike the method of Jussie Smollett, who was so unsatisfied with the diversity in his local hate community and was forced to generate new criminals to meet his specifications.

With browser fingerprinting and the wealth of individualized data on users available to 'advertisers', why not auto-generate a model of me wearing the clothes that they know to be my taste doing activities they know I enjoy? It would be good for me because I can just screen shot those images and post them to my social media -- saving the hassle of having to wear clothes and do things.

Someone needs to say it, but Levi's AI/ML is a total wreck. It's like the worst of process heavy design and development staffed almost entirely by juniors, surprisingly hard to find senior engineers, their model seems to be junior engineers reporting to senior (but non-technical) managers. Does no one stay there?

And let's not get started on their Google chatbot which they spent millions on (outsourced development, despite their alleged internal competency) and completely failed at being able to recommend... denim jackets.

That being the case, this news comes as almost no surprise.

I appreciate how much they seem to pay out to R&D but I use them as an example of where build vs buy falls down.

Been going to the site for a long time. I only buy 501 jeans and the occasional jacket. The default sort on their product detail page is always "recommended", and it never recommends 501s.

And that chat bot was an absolute joke. I used screen shots of it to rant about AI years ago. Still get retailers with a fraction of Levi's budget asking about chat bots on RFPs though.

What, you telling me a clothing company doesn't have a top of the line AI/ML department? /s

> We believe our models should reflect our consumers, which is why we’re continuing to diversify our human models in terms of size and body type, age and skin color

Does this mean that as a consumer I should see a diverse set of models or only see models reflecting my own traits? Is there a balance to strike between personalization and diversity, or is that a false dichotomy?

It could just as easily mean that they will start using sweatshop workers to model their clothes, then use AI to give them any skin color or body shape in the photos.

Seems reasonable. I assume the future version of this is generating a model based on the user - either client side with a local model or maybe you have a vector that your browser shares that represents what you want to look like and websites or ads can incorporate your (preferred) appearance into their image generations.

Well unless Levi's also makes the pants that the AI generates it's just horseshit isn't it?

> Well unless Levi's also makes the pants that the AI generates it's just horseshit isn't it?

That's an excellent point. While a human model may not "look like you," at least he's wearing an instance of the actual product you're going to buy. Who knows how what the AI model is shown to be "wearing" relates to that.

That's a fun idea, but given what we know about the advertising industry and late capitalism, it's more likely that they'll collect our appearance without our knowledge or consent, and use it to make really ugly caricatures of us that emphasize our features of greatest sensitivity and insecurity, to make us feel bad about ourselves and feel like we need to buy something to compensate for our shortcomings.

"Nice nose, Pinnochio, now buy some pants you ugly sack of shit!"

Next they can work on making jeans that are consistently the same size.

Okay, models are not needed anymore according to Levi's, Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, Otto Group. The new elite is taking shape.

This is actually a tiny step up from what I thought they were doing, which was to change the race of existing models. But this is still terrible and useless.

What if you have a commercial with models that mirror your demographic? Old hispanic lady? Old hispanic female model.

Finally, some representation for the arthritis community :D

Ummm, just give us more size variants, not less.

Levi's still has a way to go with eliminating fat-shaming.

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