Subscribers to the iconic fashion and lifestyle magazine Vogue were horrified after spotting a double-page ad for the brand Guess, featuring a blonde model who didn’t look quite right.
Unsurprisingly, a small caption in the top left-hand corner revealed that the two images, which showed the fake model sporting two different looks, were “produced” by AI marketing company Seraphinne Vallora.
Vogue isn’t just another fashion rag; it’s a flagship brand of Condé Nast’s publishing empire, as well as a legendary magazine with a history stretching back into the 1800s.
As such, users on social media reacted with outrage, vowing to end their subscriptions after the affront.
“The downfall of Vogue,” one user tweeted. “Their covers are trash. No creativity. and now using AI.”
Others warned it could set a dangerous precedent: a dystopian race to the bottom as former titans of style and cultural innovation become more concerned about bottom lines than human creativity.
“Vogue, the biggest magazine in the world, allowed AI in their publication,” another user tweeted, “which is going to set a precedent for all the other publications who quietly thought about it but were too scared of public backlash to do the same.”
The incident highlights how the use of generative AI, particularly in creative fields such as fashion or art, has generated a huge amount of societal blowback, with critics saying the tech is already putting human creators out of work by replacing them with an inferior product — which, for good measure, was created by ingesting their work without permission.
Others voiced concerns that using AI models could exacerbate the social issue of unrealistic beauty standards, in the most crass way possible.
“Guess using AI models in Vogue is creating impossible and irresponsible beauty standards,” Australian lawmaker David Shoebridge tweeted. “These digitally ‘perfect’ bodies don’t exist — but the mental health damage to young people will be real.”
As the BBC reports, Seraphinne Vallora was approached by Guess’ cofounder, Paul Marciano, on Instagram.
“We created ten draft models for him and he selected one brunette woman and one blonde that we went ahead and developed further,” 25-year-old Seraphinne Vallora cofounder Valentina Gonzalez told the broadcaster, claiming that it was a complicated process to generate the images.
However, the resulting work proved extremely controversial.
“Either Guess is doing this to create a talking point and get free publicity or they want to cut costs and don’t think about the implications of that,” model Felicity Hayward told the BBC, describing the use of AI models as “lazy and cheap.”
Gonzalez defended her company’s work, arguing that “we don’t create unattainable looks” and that the Guess model “looks quite realistic.”
But judging by the reactions online, that rationale is failing to land.
“‘We didn’t have money to hire actual models, so now we’re helping other companies not hire models either!'” one Reddit user mocked.
“Women are being held to unrealistic beauty standards by these magazines and now the beauty standards are going to be set by people who don’t even exist?!” another user wrote.
Others warned that Vogue is celebrating the death of human creativity by resorting to AI slop.
“We’re so f*cked creatively as a society,” one Reddit user lamented. “Why put any time into learning to draw, paint, photograph, write when AI can do it for you instantly, and you can be churning out content immediately. It’s f*cking devastating.”
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