AI Influence in the Fashion Industry — Is the Future Here?
There are platforms that introduce high-tech concepts to the fashion industry, and many of them claim to have something to do with AI. But forget about mixing and matching trends, manually fed data waiting to be correlated by an algorithm, and Sophia the Robot, the “fashion spokesperson” for the tech community.
When talking about artificial intelligence, what exists today is far from true AI. Here’s what AI really stands for and what a true AI entity could bring to the table in the future.
What Defines Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence or AI can be described as a machine simulation of human intelligence. AI should be able to reproduce and improve upon various processes, among which are speech recognition and machine vision.
This means that AI influence can have a tremendous impact on our culture, not just in technology but in the art, music, and fashion industries. The question remains, how much impact or influence can AI have?
Can it replace workers? Designers? Can it match the creativity of the human mind or would it be too analytical and efficient to care about visual arts?
Potential AI Influence in Design
The fashion industry churns out amazing outfits and outlandish attires, many of which might not exist outside of the catwalk. One way to potentially step away from spending fortunes on such designs is to implement machine learning and eventually AI in the fashion industry.
Amazon may just be the pioneer in this field. The tech giant has made great strides in machine learning algorithms that can predict whether or not certain looks and attires would be viewed as stylish.
Most of this is achieved through the processing of visual information, such as pictures posted on Instagram or other social media apps. This is far from perfect, of course.
What’s also interesting is that a separate Amazon team uses a generative adversarial network (GAN) to design fashionable attires.
This tool helps a machine process and understand visual data. The machine relies on an algorithm created by Amazon’s Lab126 team and uses the GAN tool to create not replicas but similarly styled clothes as the ones processed from images.
It is all very exciting. And not just for the fashion industry but other areas of research which depend on visual processing and machine learning.
However, it’s important to remember that machine learning and AI are not interchangeable terms. For a machine to possess true AI, it has to be able to do everything, not just visual data processing. With that in mind, today’s machine learning algorithms make up the primordial soup from which AI will likely be born.
AI Impact on the Human Workforce
You might have heard of the ethical questions surrounding the fast fashion industry. Not just to animals or the environment, but also to humans. Particularly on the people that actually make the clothes.
Sweatshops are not an urban myth. They’re a fact of life that many people seem to forget once they start staring at catwalk models. So, how exactly would AI influence this aspect of the fashion industry?
Let’s put it this way. With infinite brain power, AI could eventually help to design more energy-efficient, less costly, and more productive factories that would be able to handle the majority of the workload.
It’s unlikely that they will be completely autonomous, but there would be no need for severely underpaid and overworked workers in third world countries. Not to mention those that are forced into labor.
Should AI Influence be Welcomed in Creative Fields?
At the end of the day, we’re a long way from the long-predicted AI takeover. The first generations of working AI systems will likely require human assistance or quality control. Therefore, there’s no need to worry about losing your job as a fashion designer.
And still, even with the potential of AI being able to match or outthink our every thought, creativity is not just a matter of 1s and 0s. It’s very likely that there will always be room for artists and creative minds in this industry.
At the same time, AI has the potential to make the fashion industry more accessible to a wider audience, and perhaps even more meaningful.
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By bringing together technology, retailers, service providers, and customers, Primpy becomes a go-to place for desirable fashion items, services, opportunities, tips, and trends — tailored to users and businesses.
