Yeah this sucks lol. I haven't seen a single thing that AI or AI "artists" have made that wouldn't be objectively better if made by a person. Not to mention that rather than pay actual artists and models for their craft they chose to do some weird generated shit that not only reduces their entire aesthetic to an algorithm but also harmed the environment at the same time. It honestly made me think about whether I want to purchase anything from J.Crew now.
Up first, I would simply love to see real humans on real bicycles or posing on real boats in real clothes trying to approximate the vibes of those old J. Crew catalogs... instead of the slop. Not that I'm hungry for them to historically reenact their old catalogs and product lines, more that we'd be having a much more fun conversation about how they did or didn't nail it and we could critique all the real life choices that go into a project like that. Instead we're lamenting how dispiriting and lame these images are.
Physics betray the possibility this bike could be in motion. Only digital nightmare logic gets us there.
Zoom in on the tires and you'll notice they're almost bottoming out on the rims. Tires that flat would be functionally unrideable.
The crank is completely wack. The crank arms should be inline with one another, like the hour and minute hands when it's 6:00 on the dot. In the AI image the non-drive side (left) crank is at 12:00 and the drive side (right) crank is at 4:30. Non drive side pedal would be centered on the crank spindle as well, not the case here. The foot placement is even more center-of-gravity-defying.
The bicycle appears to have only a fragment of chain: just a short lateral section floating between the chainring and halfway to the cassette. Chain does not continue to wrap back around the crank. The chain is not inline with the rear axle, heading towards the nonexistent cassette.
The chainrings themselves look extremely wack and there's a Conestoga wagon wheel's worth of spindles packed in there... never seen anything like it.
I wouldn't go so hard on "identical composition," here. We have two images of non drive side profiles of a cyclist and bike in motion. The OG catalog models are doing some tricky maneuvers, rider up front has left leg fully extended, standing on the pedals, straddling the top tube, maintaining the balance of the seated passenger. All made a lot easier by the very high handlebars. Don't get me wrong, they're having a blast.
AI rider is seated in a rather convincing relaxed riding posture, though the seatpost suggests the saddle is unusually long.
Man, the fender lines on the front wheel of the AI bicycle are crazy realistic. Looks like a very human, uneven gap between the plastic fender and the tire. But then the fender itself torques and the stripe detail along the edge twists away unconvincingly, melting into cyberspace. The spokes and lacing on both wheels are very weird.
Stem and bars: This is perhaps a digital regurgitation confused by the shape of drop handlebars and a miscalculation of how stems and handlebars interface in the tangible world.
Okay, peace out. Physicists and mechanics, please delight me and let me know if there are other issues you've observed here.
As a photographer whos shot a few lookbooks for pennies, this is the beginning of the end. One domino pushes over the next. There will still be the real ones, but I fully expect to see more of this type of foul play.
Remember how bad the image generation these LLM (large language models, i dont like calling it AI, its not) were just a few years ago? I bet by next year AI generated images will be impossible to differentiate from real images.
Its already getting freaky (not in a good way) out there.
How hard is it to put a motherfucker on a bike and take a photo of that?
Not only is this exceedingly lazy, it's also so dumb-to have a campaign about a shoe and then glitch the object itself in some bodyhorror A24-type way...
I guess you can't hire real work when you're sending influencers to italy or whereverthefuck.
Other than cost savings I cannot understand why a clothing company would use AI generated images for a campaign. It’s so bizarre to show clothes that are an “approximation” of the clothes you could actually buy.
The other thing that’s goddamn dumb about this is that they are in the business of *selling me clothes* and I cannot buy clothes that an AI hallucinated
I've noticed for most people first exposed to AI generated images it's an amusing novelty or toy for a little bit. You can make little pictures. But then you get sick of it very quick, the mind and body start to reject these images. A smaller minority become obsessed and start actually playing with these systems a lot but they are often odd in other ways.
So I'm kind of hopeful as this stuff sweeps through the world, we have a year or two of things like this before the general public develops an immune response. It might be seen as a mark of our particular era like x-ray machines at the shoe store.
love this article: "It’s A.I. aura-cannibalism." Its such an interesting world. The even more scary part is it is here to stay... so how do artists like myself make it work for the future - but do it in a way that is respectful to the past genius artists by pulling 'inspiration.'
It's really not here to stay. New clean datasets are impossible to find, investment is drying up, there's zero profit to be had from it, etc etc. Altman is going to sell OpenAI to Microsoft for like 10% of its current valuation within 12 months, if not sooner
This is music to my ears! But how long will it take the brands to stop using AI for marketing, like with the J Crew example... it seems too easy for them.
Off-topic, but do you have any insight on how these international post office suspensions will affect all of our favorite clothing stores and brands? Like, will they just not be able to carry Japanese goods anymore?
Yeah this sucks lol. I haven't seen a single thing that AI or AI "artists" have made that wouldn't be objectively better if made by a person. Not to mention that rather than pay actual artists and models for their craft they chose to do some weird generated shit that not only reduces their entire aesthetic to an algorithm but also harmed the environment at the same time. It honestly made me think about whether I want to purchase anything from J.Crew now.
It's fantastic timing, I was looking at some of their stuff just last night. Not gonna happen now!
Literally had like five tabs of shit I was gonna grab during the sale and closed em all out lol
Hell yeah. I'm going to email them too
Love this article. Blackbird Spyplane, you are my kind of people.
Major sleuthing!
Hello, bicycle nut here.
Up first, I would simply love to see real humans on real bicycles or posing on real boats in real clothes trying to approximate the vibes of those old J. Crew catalogs... instead of the slop. Not that I'm hungry for them to historically reenact their old catalogs and product lines, more that we'd be having a much more fun conversation about how they did or didn't nail it and we could critique all the real life choices that go into a project like that. Instead we're lamenting how dispiriting and lame these images are.
Physics betray the possibility this bike could be in motion. Only digital nightmare logic gets us there.
Zoom in on the tires and you'll notice they're almost bottoming out on the rims. Tires that flat would be functionally unrideable.
The crank is completely wack. The crank arms should be inline with one another, like the hour and minute hands when it's 6:00 on the dot. In the AI image the non-drive side (left) crank is at 12:00 and the drive side (right) crank is at 4:30. Non drive side pedal would be centered on the crank spindle as well, not the case here. The foot placement is even more center-of-gravity-defying.
The bicycle appears to have only a fragment of chain: just a short lateral section floating between the chainring and halfway to the cassette. Chain does not continue to wrap back around the crank. The chain is not inline with the rear axle, heading towards the nonexistent cassette.
The chainrings themselves look extremely wack and there's a Conestoga wagon wheel's worth of spindles packed in there... never seen anything like it.
I wouldn't go so hard on "identical composition," here. We have two images of non drive side profiles of a cyclist and bike in motion. The OG catalog models are doing some tricky maneuvers, rider up front has left leg fully extended, standing on the pedals, straddling the top tube, maintaining the balance of the seated passenger. All made a lot easier by the very high handlebars. Don't get me wrong, they're having a blast.
AI rider is seated in a rather convincing relaxed riding posture, though the seatpost suggests the saddle is unusually long.
Man, the fender lines on the front wheel of the AI bicycle are crazy realistic. Looks like a very human, uneven gap between the plastic fender and the tire. But then the fender itself torques and the stripe detail along the edge twists away unconvincingly, melting into cyberspace. The spokes and lacing on both wheels are very weird.
Stem and bars: This is perhaps a digital regurgitation confused by the shape of drop handlebars and a miscalculation of how stems and handlebars interface in the tangible world.
Okay, peace out. Physicists and mechanics, please delight me and let me know if there are other issues you've observed here.
Cycling and sailing enthusiasts have a lot to chew on with these
Real coup, nicely done
"liked by donetodeathprojects"
As a photographer whos shot a few lookbooks for pennies, this is the beginning of the end. One domino pushes over the next. There will still be the real ones, but I fully expect to see more of this type of foul play.
Remember how bad the image generation these LLM (large language models, i dont like calling it AI, its not) were just a few years ago? I bet by next year AI generated images will be impossible to differentiate from real images.
Its already getting freaky (not in a good way) out there.
As my 76 year old husband says, “I’m so glad my life happened after world war 2 and before AI”.
How hard is it to put a motherfucker on a bike and take a photo of that?
Not only is this exceedingly lazy, it's also so dumb-to have a campaign about a shoe and then glitch the object itself in some bodyhorror A24-type way...
I guess you can't hire real work when you're sending influencers to italy or whereverthefuck.
Other than cost savings I cannot understand why a clothing company would use AI generated images for a campaign. It’s so bizarre to show clothes that are an “approximation” of the clothes you could actually buy.
The other thing that’s goddamn dumb about this is that they are in the business of *selling me clothes* and I cannot buy clothes that an AI hallucinated
I've noticed for most people first exposed to AI generated images it's an amusing novelty or toy for a little bit. You can make little pictures. But then you get sick of it very quick, the mind and body start to reject these images. A smaller minority become obsessed and start actually playing with these systems a lot but they are often odd in other ways.
So I'm kind of hopeful as this stuff sweeps through the world, we have a year or two of things like this before the general public develops an immune response. It might be seen as a mark of our particular era like x-ray machines at the shoe store.
Gives a new meaning to “being a real one.”
love this article: "It’s A.I. aura-cannibalism." Its such an interesting world. The even more scary part is it is here to stay... so how do artists like myself make it work for the future - but do it in a way that is respectful to the past genius artists by pulling 'inspiration.'
It's really not here to stay. New clean datasets are impossible to find, investment is drying up, there's zero profit to be had from it, etc etc. Altman is going to sell OpenAI to Microsoft for like 10% of its current valuation within 12 months, if not sooner
This is music to my ears! But how long will it take the brands to stop using AI for marketing, like with the J Crew example... it seems too easy for them.
Oh, damn... Those glitched stripes was the best part of that rugby...
Off-topic, but do you have any insight on how these international post office suspensions will affect all of our favorite clothing stores and brands? Like, will they just not be able to carry Japanese goods anymore?
ACK! “The cursed daydreams of a server farm”! Way beyond creepy. Many thanks for the expose …