Fashion brand 'selkie' markets itself as sustainable and part of the slow fashion movement. But it's been at the centre of a storm since being found to be using AI to create its designs. While some industry experts say AI is here to stay customers have taken to social media slamming the company.
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00:00 AI is widespread in every single industry.
00:06 You'd be hard-pressed to find any industry that's not using it.
00:09 And the fashion industry has been using AI for years.
00:12 It's basically a fancy way to say sorting through large amounts of data.
00:17 Yeah, so for people out there who want to get an idea of how it is being used,
00:22 can you give us a practical example of where it would be used?
00:25 So, across different areas of the industry,
00:28 it would be used is helping with sustainability,
00:31 helping brands discover... In what way?
00:34 So, we all know the fashion industry is a large contributor to waste.
00:39 So, if at the end of every season we weren't putting so much in landfill
00:44 because we haven't sold it, that would be a really good thing.
00:47 So, AI can be used to understand what is going to sell,
00:52 what's trending, what sizes are working, what shapes are working,
00:56 and then brands and designers can use that information
01:00 to make sure they're making the right sort of products that people want.
01:03 But to what extent is it being used to actually create the garment
01:08 or design the garments?
01:10 So, I like to think of AI as a member of the team.
01:14 So, there's going to be...
01:16 Let's say, for example, in the story you were mentioning,
01:19 AI was used to create designs.
01:22 So, it's someone in the team who's contributing to the designs,
01:27 but then there's still going to be a head designer at every brand
01:31 looking over what's happened.
01:33 So, it's not going to be that the AI is just creating a design
01:37 and then it's going down a runway and being sold.
01:40 There's still going to be that human element.
01:42 But for some businesses, you would think that it would be used alone?
01:47 I don't think any designer would put their name to something
01:52 that they don't think is truly and authentically their brand.
01:56 And so, what do you say to people who might be outraged,
02:00 thinking that their garment has been created by AI
02:04 rather than an individual human being?
02:08 I think being outraged over something like that
02:13 might be a bit of a stretch.
02:16 Well, unhappy. Unhappy.
02:19 AI is used everywhere.
02:22 So, if that's something they feel,
02:25 that's up to them to make the choice if they want to work with,
02:28 if they want to buy from brands and designers using it.
02:31 But I would say, unless you're buying from a designer
02:35 at Bondi Markets, who's designing everything themselves
02:39 and making it all themselves,
02:41 you would be very hard-pressed in today's age
02:44 to find a brand or a designer
02:46 not using artificial intelligence in some sort of way.
02:49 And how do you use it in the work that you do?
02:51 So, we're a personal styling platform,
02:54 and we use it to make personal styling more affordable.
02:57 So, traditionally, that's hundreds of dollars,
03:00 and it excluded a lot of people
03:02 from getting help with their personal style.
03:05 So, we use artificial intelligence
03:07 to sort through thousands of products
03:09 that aren't right for a customer,
03:11 to narrow it down to less than 1% to say,
03:14 "This is what's right, this is what's going to suit them."
03:17 And then a human stylist comes in and says,
03:20 "These are the perfect products from that selection,
03:23 "and this is what we'll send."
03:25 So, basically, a member of the team
03:27 who does a bit of the legwork and excludes a lot.
03:31 I noticed in the discussion around this
03:33 that some people are saying this is just embracing new technology
03:36 and working with it, like, for example, Photoshop, when that came.
03:39 Do you agree with that analogy?
03:41 Most definitely. So, it's a huge change.
03:45 A lot of people haven't known this sort of thing existed before,
03:49 so it's a bit of a shock, and change can be scary,
03:52 but it's a good thing.
03:54 For us, it's creating jobs at our business.
03:57 So, people wouldn't have been able
03:59 to afford a personal styling service before.
04:02 We've made it affordable,
04:03 and that's because of artificial intelligence.
04:05 So, I think, look at it in the way that it's creating jobs
04:09 and creating opportunity, rather than taking things away.
04:14 away.
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