DIGITAL LIFE

Levi's will use AI-generated models instead of their mannequins

Levi's wants to guarantee more inclusiveness to its customers.

When we think of the professions likely to disappear with the democratization of AI, we often think of activities related to writing and the creation of images. The progress made by Dall-E, Midjourney V5 which allows more real-than-life fakes, or even GPT 4 are as promising as they are frightening, and it is clear that artificial intelligence is still in its infancy.

Proof that no tradesman is spared, the famous jeans manufacturer Levi Strauss has just announced an amazing partnership with Lalaland.ia, a digital fashion studio specializing in realistic mannequins generated by AI. In the suspense behind the project, the idea is to replace — in part — human mannequins of the company by artificially generated images.

More diversity and inclusiveness...Behind this announcement shared on March 23, Levi’s aims to guarantee more diversity and inclusiveness for its consumers. Concretely, details a press release, when an Internet user visits the brand ’s website, the objective is to allow him to model a tailor-made body, by choosing his corpulence, his complexion and even his age. The idea is to create a sort of digital avatar to virtually try out a product before going to checkout.

The idea is not new, since it has already been mentioned several times during the development of the metaverse and virtual reality. The fact remains that here, it is not a question of digitizing a virtual image of the consumer, but simply of him offer a greater variety of modelsso that the latter can better identify themselves at the time of a potential act of purchase.

Replace human mannequins?...Quickly after this announcement, the debate ignited on social networks, in particular about the future of photo models in the face of the dazzling development of AI. Worried people can be reassured, for the moment there is no question of replacing humans, but simply of proposing a photorealistic alternative that is as inclusive as possible. In its press release, the brand wants to be reassured.

Still, if the image-generating AIs are still in their infancy, the recent progress made by MidJourney V5 with an artificial photo of Pope Francis in an XXL down jacket is impressive. The details are finer and finer when it comes to generating a human body from scratch, and the valley of the strange becomes more and more difficult to perceive, whereas it was still palpable a few years ago. weeks on most AI-generated photos.

The idea of ​​completely replacing its human models with virtual avatars is therefore not yet relevant at Levi’s, but it could materialize sooner than expected. Not only are the models generated by Lalaland.ia particularly convincing, but the operation could also be particularly profitable for the manufacturer, which has not been spared by the crisis. Since 2020, 1,500 employees have been terminated by the company. To offer more inclusive products, the brand could probably have contented itself with using more models with different morphologies and physics. But using AI definitely seems more cost effective.

By Amandine Jonniaux