Huffer said it uses AI tools across many parts of the business, including rostering, budgeting, administration, marketing and advertising.<\/p>\n
\u201cAround the specific imagery being discussed, we want to be clear. We did not use this individual\u2019s face to create an AI model.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe did generate the new image using an AI design tool \u2013 but the image was not engineered to resemble any specific person.\u201d<\/p>\n
The company said it was \u201cgenuinely sorry\u201d to hear how upsetting the incident had been for those involved.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur community creators and models are a hugely important part of our brand. While we stand by our position, it was never our intention to make anyone feel that their identity, creativity, or contribution had been appropriated.\u201d<\/p>\n
Huffer said it had removed the image from circulation as a result.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe remain committed to using NZ models and photographers to create imagery as well as our UGC contributor content\u201d, they wrote. \u201cThis is not going away.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Auckland-founded brand said the scandal had sparked a broader conversation about how AI tools can be used in a \u201cthoughtful, responsible and respectful\u201d way, adding that they would continue to \u201clearn\u201d. <\/p>\n
Asked about the statement, Timmins-Scanlon told the Herald Huffer had blocked his account after he commented on the post questioning the image.<\/p>\n
Huffer managing director Kate Berry previously claimed he had been blocked for breaking the brand\u2019s community standards.<\/p>\n
Following reports that Huffer has since threatened Timmins-Scanlon with legal action under the Harmful Digital Communications Act 2015, the issue has drawn the attention of the Free Speech Union.<\/p>\n
Union chief executive Jillaine Heather said it was concerned Huffer had allegedly demanded the model \u201cimmediately remove, or amend\u201d posts it claimed breached the act.<\/p>\n
Free Speech Union chief executive Jillaine Heather says it has written to Huffer after the brand reportedly threatened legal action against Elijah Timmins-Scanlon. Photo \/ Free Speech Union<\/p>\n
She said the legislation was designed to protect individuals from serious online harm and did not give companies standing to shut down \u201cawkward questions\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cHuffer is free to deny Elijah\u2019s claims, and it has. What it is not free to do is threaten a model with legal proceedings it has no standing to bring.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said the union has asked Huffer to explain what authority it believed it had to invoke the act and which posts it considered problematic.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe take no position on whether Elijah is right about the image. Either the image was AI-generated or it wasn\u2019t. Threatening the person asking the question doesn\u2019t change the answer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Huffer declined to comment when approached by the Herald.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Huffer said it uses AI tools across many parts of the business, including rostering, budgeting, administration, marketing and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":481737,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[432,74,9092,365,26676,1554,534,9556,363,364,806,9084,39426,13731,72945,4975,16718,161037,17518,138541,6712,1432,111,139,69,32732,3109,5196,31530,9345,199,145,18937,242118,4483,13797,1455,102],"class_list":["post-481736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-action","tag-after","tag-against","tag-ai","tag-allegations","tag-alleged","tag-amid","tag-artificial","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-as","tag-challenges","tag-clothing","tag-dispute","tag-elijah","tag-free","tag-him","tag-huffer","tag-image","tag-intelligencegenerated","tag-legal","tag-model","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-promote","tag-public","tag-removed","tag-removes","tag-speech","tag-take","tag-technology","tag-threatened","tag-timminsscanlon","tag-union","tag-used","tag-warning","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481736","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=481736"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481736\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/481737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=481736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=481736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=481736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}