Huffer said it had removed the image from circulation. <\/p>\n
Review findings <\/p>\n
The independent investigation was conducted by forensic technology and cyber security expert Campbell McKenzie, who is the managing director of Incident Response Solutions (IRS). <\/p>\n
IRS worked to determine whether any images of the individuals who raised concerns had been used, copied, referenced, adapted, or relied upon to create the campaign imagery. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe investigation established that no facial images of any of the individuals whose likenesses were alleged to have been used were ever provided to, uploaded into, or used by the AI image-generation process.\u201d<\/p>\n
Huffer launched an independent review into its AI use for marketing material. <\/p>\n
As part of the review, IRS examined the agency\u2019s workflow and prompt history and found the prompts used to generate the images did not reference any specific model, individual, or previous Huffer modelling work. <\/p>\n
\u201cAside from identifying a subject\u2019s gender, the prompts contained no instructions relating to the generation of a particular face or facial features,\u201d the report said. <\/p>\n
The investigation also confirmed product images supplied for use in the AI workflow had model faces \u201cdeliberately redacted\u201d before being uploaded to image-generation tools. <\/p>\n
It also discovered that while clothing, poses and other non-facial attributes from product imagery could influence aspects of a generated image, there was \u201cno evidence\u201d that facial likenesses were sourced from or derived from identifiable individuals.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile the system accurately reproduces Huffer\u2019s garments from supplied product photography, the forensic evidence did not support a finding that any model\u2019s facial image had been copied.\u201d<\/p>\n
The report concluded the findings were supported by evidence to a standard capable of standing up in court. <\/p>\n
\u2018Cherry-pick truths\u2019<\/p>\n
In response, Timmins-Scanlon told the Herald he thought the investigation needed to be conducted by a specialist AI forensic team, which New Zealand did not have. <\/p>\n
\u201cI feel disappointed that they\u2019ve gone to these lengths to get a forensic team to cherry-pick truths, because what they\u2019ve said are truthful on a technicality, and I think it stresses my concerns even more,\u201d Timmins-Scanlon said. <\/p>\n
Red Eleven model Elijah Timmins-Scanlon still has concerns about how Huffer developed its adverts.<\/p>\n
He said because there were still no regulations or laws for the use of AI, it was easy for a brand to deny a \u201cfair and reasonable claim\u201d. <\/p>\n
Timmins-Scanlon said the report stressed the importance that no facial images of any individuals were used.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is worded carefully and does not deny the use of the body as a form of likeness.\u201d <\/p>\n
Elijah Timmins-Scanlon (left) and the image he claims is AI-generated.<\/p>\n
He said the part in the report that said Huffer did not reference any specific model, individual or previous Huffer modelling work was another example of \u201ccherry picking\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s only talking about the prompts; what\u2019s to say they didn\u2019t just put an image in and prompt it saying \u2018duplicate model\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are ways around prompting by not referencing any specific model that would be able to generate a model. Which again is the reason I\u2019ve stressed my concerns for this situation,\u201d Timmins-Scanlon said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The social media allegations quickly led to legal threats and rising media attention. Since then, in a statement…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":481737,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[1032,365,363,364,9852,4463,256055,6846,49738,256054,61101,2740,1874,161037,5606,21556,296,12898,74672,39546,1432,5289,111,139,7805,69,1118,5909,762,312,1305,34814,145,1361,13797,3608],"class_list":["post-515542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-advertising","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-based","tag-brand","tag-computergenerated","tag-disputes","tag-evidence","tag-exhuffer","tag-findings","tag-former","tag-found","tag-huffer","tag-images","tag-independent","tag-into","tag-investigation","tag-likeness","tag-misuse","tag-model","tag-models","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-no","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-results","tag-review","tag-says","tag-show","tag-streetwear","tag-technology","tag-that","tag-used","tag-were"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515542","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=515542"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515542\/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=515542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=515542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=515542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}