TECHNOLOGY | Tired AF of The A.I Hype - YAWN!

I absolutely refuse all artificial intelligence "A.I" hype. 

As someone who naturally has a healthy sense of skepticism I am not quick to jump on any trend, readily agree with any position, I stronger oppose group think, and I question everything. My natural instincts were then supported throughout my recent academic pursuit of an accounting degree. Simultaneous in learning the technical aspects of accounting is the underlying character traits and the professional code of conduct that were emphasized as individuals carry out business activities. Two concepts introduced are ethical principles and professional skepticism. The former is taught early in the curriculum; it is imperative that students are aware that there will be individuals that will not conduct business activities in an ethical, legal, or moral manner. To demonstrate the value of ethnics within the accounting profession studies of major fraud cases are evaluated to illustrate the negative repercussions created by an unethical company culture - lost of jobs and benefits, lost of public confidence, and national economic instability. While working within the framework of the code of conduct the latter enables the practitioner when confronted with ethical dilemmas to properly probe issues and resist pressure to behave counter to those principles.  

Which brings me to my wariness of the hast to embrace artificial intelligence specifically within the fashion industry. It’s a red flag when there is a near unanimous view across main stream media, billionaires, and tech companies who attempt to create a narrative that AI is the end all and be all. And if employees or companies do not immediately incorporate and invest in the new technology they will somehow be economically left in the dust. It is also cause for concerns as cyberattacks are evolving; nefarious actors are not just targeting capital but the biometric data of ordinary people which fashion companies store large volumes of. The fashion industry should not be a leader or trendsetter in the race to embrace AI rather a fashion follower -  in the age of information it is highly detrimental to be an eager follower.

A thriving design business in today’s dynamic and globalized market requires leadership first and management second. Leaders are able to survey the landscape and guide with clarity, stability and clear direction amid uncertainty. With a clear vision  companies are able to easily distinguish between strategies that align with both long and short term goals and fabs. A fashion business can be assessed from two functional area the creative and the administrative; both are required for a retail operation to perform in the most efficient and profitable manner. The creative is at the heart of a design business; innovative and desirable products, well designed stores, strong and consist branding across digital channels, and exceptional customer service all combine to create a unique brand experience. From an operational perspective a modern retail business consist of various channels used to distribute its products - owed brick and mortar locations, digital store front, placement on third party digital marketplaces, traditional wholesale stores and websites. The operation is unpinned by a patchwork ecosystem of proprietary and third party software. Which comes with it own risk of customer biometric data theft, breach of internal systems, and cyber attacks that take place on third party serves. Although fashion is not immune to the AI wave companies would be wise to conduct a rigorous cost benefit analysis of integrating the technology, funneling out vast amounts of consumer data to third party vendors, and view how competitors have fared. 

Current use cases of AI application spans both the operational and creative functions. At Walmart, America's largest private employer; amongst its top-level executives they have began to examine artificial intelligence implications for its workforce. One area includes its customer service function the company has already build chat bots tasking the software to answer calls centers and online chat. Luxury fashion brand Acne Studios for its Fall/Winter 2020 menswear collection funneled all its archive images into a AI algorithm. An algorithm's output by nature will not product original ideas or concepts - in the case of Acne it appeared to be an average of what the brand had previously done rather than something new. In Vogue's review of the collection it states "...AI is really, really poor at clothing design - unless its design is to embarrass man to death, in which cast it is quite brilliant." In an interview with Women's Wear Daily Acne Studios designer Jonny Johansson explained to his surprise the algorithm did not solve the problem. Ultimately, he and his team reverted to using traditional design methods.  The current regulatory environment for artificial intelligence within the U.S. is fragmented at the state-level and at odds with the federal government’s laissezz-faire attitude. Additionally, works created solely by AI are not eligible for copyright protection - however work can be protected based on a substantive human contribution. This creates a complex environment and additional risk where design businesses must continuously monitor the sources used for training and ensure the final outputs are sufficiently original. 

There is nothing in life more dynamic and creative than the human brain. Technology for technology's sake will not in and of itself positively effect a business that is ill managed with no clear purpose, strategy, or understanding of the root issues. For a fashion business there are so many elements that goes into creating desire products which cannot be boiled down to an algorithm that will only produce a "average" output - one man's average is another man's mediocrity. Will there be small pockets were AI does alleviate some repetitive task - maybe, but even those areas would require a human to review and check for errors. However, the extreme rhetoric that artificial intelligence is some how going to immediately shift our current way of working is false and misleading. 

Moral of the story, its sometimes more fashionable to be very unfashionable.