As the scandal rolls on \u2013 Timmins-Scanlon says his Instagram account had been disabled and he has started a new account to keep posting about the issue \u2013 the question it has prompted remains: What can you do if you spot an image that looks like you?<\/p>\n
Timmins-Scanlon, left and right, turned to Instagram to share his theory about what he believes is an AI-generated likeness, centre. (Images: @elijah.majorr)<\/p>\n
Intellectual property lawyer Narly Kalupahana is upfront. \u201cThis is a really, really difficult area because the Copyright Act doesn\u2019t explicitly deal with AI.\u201d Nor does New Zealand have any existing copyright protection for a person\u2019s image or likeness. Trademarking a likeness is difficult. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to register it for each thing that you don\u2019t want others to be using it for,\u201d he says. For example, you have to specify you\u2019re trademarking your likeness for clothing, movies or advertising. So, just trademark your likeness for everything, right? Not so fast, he says. \u201cYou also have to be using it yourself [for that specific purpose].\u201d This is happening overseas, with Matthew McConaughey and Jeremy Clarkson<\/a> both trademarking their faces.\u00a0<\/p>\n What about that oft-cited rule that if you change something by 10-20% you get around copyright law? \u201cIt\u2019s all made up,\u201d Kalupahana says. Instead, infringement rests on whether a substantive part has been copied.\u00a0<\/p>\n There\u2019s more: New Zealand does not have strong personality rights \u2013 the right to control the commercial use of your identity \u2013 in the way some countries do. The closest we get to it is the Fair Trading Act; if your image was used commercially then \u201cyou could argue it\u2019s a false endorsement\u201d.<\/p>\n The upshot is it\u2019s the wild west. \u201cThe toughest thing is that legislation is simply not keeping up with the real world and the politicians we\u2019ve got legislating don\u2019t really understand it,\u201d Kalupahana says.<\/p>\n Models don\u2019t need to give up, though. Kalupahana says the way to tackle AI is through contracts. \u201cI think the thing that can stop all of this is really good, tight agreements from the modelling agencies.\u201d<\/p>\n Usage agreements \u2013 how and where images from a photo shoot will be used \u2013 are a critical part of a booking and it\u2019s an agency\u2019s job to negotiate on behalf of their models. Agreements protect a model\u2019s likeness (that wording is explicitly used in many agency contracts) and ensure the agreed fee is appropriate to the scope of the use, the size of the brand and work involved to create the images.\u00a0<\/p>\n Katherine Lowe is well schooled on this. The co-founder of model agency Super, updated all terms and conditions after H&M introduced \u201cdigital twins<\/a>\u201d \u2013 versions of real-life models, who retained ownership of their synthetic selves \u2013 in 2025. Lowe says agreements must be detailed to be fair, and she thinks New Zealand could do with tightening these, like agencies in other countries do. \u201cYou\u2019re paying for where [the model\u2019s image] is going and for how long, like six months on a billboard or in-store on a printed card or in the newspaper.\u201d<\/p>\n Regardless of the agreement, though, AI is a threat, she agrees. An AI likeness can do two shoots in one day and doesn\u2019t need to get on a plane. \u201cIt\u2019s not ideal for the models,\u201d says Lowe. \u201cI think it\u2019s even worse for shooting teams [stylists, photographers and makeup artists] than it is for the models at the moment.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n A fight back is underway. International advocacy organisations like The Model Alliance and Models Trust have been sounding the alarm about the potential for the fresh exploitation of an already \u201cvulnerable<\/a>\u201d workforce. The Fashion Workers Act, progressing through New York state legislature, includes the consent and usage of a \u201cdigital replica\u201d. The British Fashion Model Agents Association has petitioned the UK government<\/a> over the non-consensual use of a model\u2019s likeness with AI and is developing a code of conduct that, while not legally binding, would set a precedent. Meanwhile, Timmins-Scanlon says brands should declare AI-generated images.<\/p>\n Will any of this dissuade brands? Some seem happy to be up-front about their usage. In 2023 Levi\u2019s announced a partnership with Lalaland.ai to create AI-generated models for improved \u201cdiversity<\/a>\u201d (that didn\u2019t go down well<\/a>). Guess used AI models, created by AI marketing firm Seraphinne Vallora, for advertisements<\/a> it ran in Vogue magazine and the Financial Times last year. And this week New Zealand-founded brand Salasai unveiled\u00a0a \u201cdigital muse\u201d called Tia, tagging its posts with an AI disclosure label.<\/p>\n Is it wise to use AI? Time will tell but Kalupahana advises brands to tread carefully. \u201cA lot of this AI stuff is not illegal and a lot of this stuff is not explicitly covered by legislation, but you can cause your brand huge damage by going down that path.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aside from posting on Insta, what can you do if you spot an AI image that you think…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":469907,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[365,363,156,1438,5289,111,139,69,2935,145],"class_list":["post-469906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-entertainment","tag-fashion","tag-models","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-society","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=469906"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469906\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/469907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=469906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=469906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=469906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Some brands have been transparent about their use of AI, including H&M, Guess and Salasai. (Images: H&M, @seraphinnevallora, @salasai)<\/p>\n