AI and ethics: the right to defend yourself

Rachele Didero, 28 years old, a fashion designer graduated from PoliDesign in Milan, in 2019 she went to the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York and there she realized that bringing together computer science and fashion allows us to address a very hot topic: the ethics of data use. In most Western countries, there are laws that protect people's privacy. Laws that are applied formally, for example by obsessively asking users to accept cookies every time they browse a site.

What is ignored, however, is the constant use of video surveillance cameras that intercept faces that are not difficult to identify thanks to artificial intelligence. Rachele Didero understands that the topic has weight: no one is concerned with understanding what happens to our biometric data and what their use is in the commercial field, their economic value. But AI has flaws, loopholes, and mechanical ingenuity. Images printed on clothes can easily confuse it, making recognition impossible.

“They are called “adversarial images” and are one of the unsolved problems of computer science. Artificial intelligence does not catalog based on visual memory and experience, unlike humans. Instead, it analyzes the set of pixels and gives them a meaning”.

The abstract prints of Cap_able, the start-up founded by Didero together with the Politecnico di Milano in 2021, push facial recognition programs to catalog those who wear them as "animals", for example.

Combining this intrinsic fragility with studies on human volumes and fabrics, the first anti-recognition collection tested on YOLO, the most advanced real-time object recognition system, was born.

The Cap_able collection is called Manifesto. “The intention is first of all to raise awareness of the problem of the improper use of biometric data. Data is the greatest economic resource: Cap_able addresses the issue of privacy, opening the discussion on the importance of protection from the improper use of biometric recognition cameras”.

From a more pragmatic point of view, the adversial textile patent, co-owned with the Politecnico di Milano, translates into collaborations with individuals and companies that need to protect brands, identities and new products.

GenAI and creativity: they are two different things

Gaetano Di Dio studied Fashion Design at the Politecnico di Milano and Graphic Design at the IED. Training experience at Accenture and finally the birth of Parallelia, together with his partner Augusto D’Auria. The creative agency was born to exploit artificial intelligence to redefine workflows using AI tools. And to provide high-quality professional content in half the time and, it should be emphasized, also the costs.

Di Dio speaks of his creature with contagious enthusiasm: “The figure of the creative technologist is not yet very widespread, but it will become more and more so. It works on the border between creativity and computer science and to explain what it really does it is more useful to use a practical example: recently we developed a look book for a fashion brand without having the physical garments yet.

We dressed a model generated by AI with the new collection, in a set capable of expressing the mood of the season. What is it for? To give yourself more expressive possibilities by saving days of work, eliminating logistical problems and simplifying content production flows”.

Gaetano Di Dio’s enthusiasm is directly proportional to the fear of seeing professional figures and human resources disappear. It is clear that there is ethical concern, and the work of the creative technologist is also to improve generative assets within industrial processes without devastating the communications sector in a short time.

But the change is already underway and there is no going back: “I recently discussed the topic with the CEO of an international agency. He reminded me that the advent of Photoshop created the same type of resistance, and today it is the basis of any photographer’s work. Lightening and improving human workflows does not mean giving up creative expertise, but actually giving it new tools and possibilities”.

New AI assets and respect for people

Today Parallelia's focus is twofold. On the one hand, understanding which parts of the many possible services to verticalize. On the other, developing GenAI software that customers can use independently to speed up and make the content creation process less expensive. In short, it is as if Di Dio were saying that a catalog of ceramic surfaces with many references does not represent a creative challenge, but an economic one that requires great patience.

For each floor, AI can create the most suitable set, the most expressive interior design, perhaps even the human figure with the right outfit. The product is real, its communication is a functional fake. "Precision and verisimilitude are increasingly refined. The next step is the creation of video content, of dynamic images with real products inserted in generated contexts".

Art, Commitment and AI

And then of course there is design that intersects civil commitment and art, using artificial intelligence in its function of reader and reorganizer of data. Irene Stracuzzi, graduated from the Design Academy of Eindhoven and the Polytechnic of Turin, is a graphic and information designer fascinated by cartography. Starting from the disputed borders in the Arctic Ocean, her interest has expanded to include the legal context, data collection, border politics, natural resources and climate change.

A rigorous research process that involves historical, scientific and technological investigations and a strong ethic on the responsible use of data. The aim is to reveal the influence that design has in the representation of the world order, as well as the need for a more careful and informed approach.