Taiwanese Model Furious Over AI-Altered Photos... "They Changed My Race"

"AI Absorbs Main Standard of Beauty as White...
Criticism That It Regresses Diversity Efforts in the Fashion Industry"

A Taiwanese-American model has sparked controversy by claiming that a famous fashion designer altered her photo using artificial intelligence (AI) to make her appear as a white woman and posted it on social media (SNS).

Model Shirin Wu (left) and the altered photo (right). [Photo source=Model Shirin Wu SNS capture]

According to the British daily The Guardian on the 4th (local time), model Shirin Wu said, "Fashion designer Michael Costello recently posted a photo from a Los Angeles (LA) fashion show on Instagram, where my face was edited to look like a white woman." Her face walking on the runway was altered to appear as a white woman.

Costello, a renowned designer who has worked with Beyonc?, Jennifer Lopez, and Celine Dion, posted the edited photo of Wu's face on Instagram on the 2nd but later deleted it.

Costello explained, "I did not edit this photo," adding, "The photo was 'fan art' sent to me by someone at the time." He continued, "I did not think anything before posting this photo on Instagram; I just shared every photo tagged with my name."

Despite Costello's explanation, Wu could not hide her anger. She said, "I was deeply hurt that my work was stolen. This is inhumane."

Regarding the incident, Susan Scafidi, a professor at the Fordham Fashion Law Institute in the U.S., stated, "The altered photo of Wu shows the possibility that a program that absorbs the dominant standard of beauty as white can completely erase the model's race," expressing concern that the photo "regresses the fashion industry's progress toward (racial) diversity on the runway."

She also pointed out, "Copyright law only protects the photographer's work from unauthorized alteration, but it does not protect the rights of the model."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.