Is the AI model "fitting" product real? Can I buy it? Expert: Merchants should fulfill their labeling obligations to avoid compromising consumers' right to know and choose

Source: Legal Daily

Author: Sun Tianjiao

Trainee reporter Ding Yi

Small face, flawless skin, perfect body ratio, the model and the clothes on her body complement each other, making the clothes more fit and trendy... This is a picture of a product that appeared on an e-commerce platform. But a closer look reveals that the models trying on the clothes don't seem to be real people. After private lettering to the store, the other party readily admitted that the promotional map was drawn by AI, "in order to better show the details of the clothing."

A reporter from the "Rule of Law Daily" recently investigated and found that many merchants on multiple e-commerce platforms have used AI models to try on clothing to display products. Not only that, on the e-commerce platform, some stores have begun to provide AI model drawing services, such as "AI drawing model generation", "dummy for real model" and so on.

Using AI model "fitting" pictures for publicity, is the product effect presented reliable? Will consumers buy it? Can the "fitting" pictures of AI models be made and used at will, and what legal risks may they face? With these questions, the reporter launched a survey interview.

There are obvious differences in the details, which may be suspected of false propaganda

AI model "fitting" publicity picture, the clothes fit perfectly on the model, there is almost no wrinkle, but is this really the case?

The reporter recently searched on major e-commerce platforms using keywords such as "exquisite suits" and found that the publicity pictures of many products are obviously AI models "fitting" pictures. The more obvious features of these AI models are that they have obvious body curves, slender limbs, extremely delicate facial features with a sense of caricature, and the background is mostly a blurred solid color background.

For example, in a store with 6,000 favorites on an e-commerce platform, the second place in the store’s praise list is a suit with sales of more than 450 pieces. The product picture is presented by a cartoon model with blonde hair and blue eyes. The photos seem to be soft-focused (refers to using a soft-focus lens or adding a soft-focus filter in front of the lens in photography to achieve a delicate and soft image). At first glance, it looks like a cartoon illustration.

The reporter placed an order for the product, and after receiving the product, he opened it and found that there was a big difference between the suit he got and the promotional picture: the color was different, there was an extra pleat out of thin air, and the height of the neckline did not match. What is even more speechless is that the clothes on the model picture have lantern sleeves with dropped shoulders, and the length is just above the elbows, while the sleeves of the actual clothes cover the elbows, and the cuffs cannot be tightened.

The situation encountered by the reporter is not an isolated case. In an online store, a piece of clothing with an AI model "fitting" image as a publicity image, which has sold hundreds of pieces, is full of such comments in the comment area: "It may be because AI picture, so it is very close-fitting in the painting, but it is too fat after receiving it." "The skirt is full of pleats." "The color of the clothes is different from the picture."

On social platforms, under the entry of "AI model", many netizens made it clear that they do not want to pay for AI models. Many netizens believe that using AI models to display clothes will increase the probability of online shopping. Some netizens bluntly said: "No real person is allowed to try on the upper body, will anyone really buy it?" "The proportion of the head and body of the AI model does not match that of a human, so there is no reference." How can authenticity be guaranteed?" Some netizens made it clear that they "would not buy any products with product pictures generated by AI."

Sun Ying, a professor at the China University of Political Science and Law and deputy secretary-general of the China Consumer Protection Law Research Association, said that the application of artificial intelligence in the field of e-commerce sales is best when live models or anchors use AI technology to automatically change different styles of clothes for display. "At present, there are still some technically insurmountable obstacles in the AI production of model pictures, and the details will be different, so that consumers cannot judge the real appearance of the clothes."

"Because the AI model map cannot completely and truly show the objective conditions such as the appearance, style, color, and design of the product, it will inevitably involve damage to the consumer's right to know and right to choose, and violates the operator's obligation to the consumer to provide comprehensive and comprehensive product or service information. The obligation to be true and accurate, and may even be involved in false or misleading propaganda." Sun Ying said.

The production cost is low and efficient, and the technical level needs to be improved

Why are some merchants willing to choose AI model "fitting" pictures for product promotion?

Some people in the industry told reporters that this is mainly because some online shops want to save shooting costs. According to public reports, after some merchants replaced real models with AI models, including the costs of models, photographers and other staff, venue fees, equipment fees, etc., the cost of the month was saved by about 40,000 yuan.

"Some small and medium-sized businesses often cannot afford models, or cannot do very beautiful shots. AI models can help them complete high-quality product display at a lower cost. In addition, some specific shots require foreign models, etc., and AI models are used. It will be more convenient and quicker than finding a suitable model in reality.” said the industry insider.

Under the corresponding demand, there are more and more softwares that provide AIGC (AI Generated Content, artificial intelligence automatically generated content) functions. The main methods for generating AI model pictures by related software are: using pure text description, text plus pictures, and pictures plus pictures, you can generate AI model "fitting" pictures with one click.

The reporter's investigation found that along with the needs of merchants for the production of AI model "fitting" pictures, the service of generating AI model "fitting" pictures is also becoming the main product of some merchants. On an online shopping app, the reporter searched with keywords such as "AI model generation" and "AI clothing model generation", and a number of related products appeared.

On the detailed introduction pages of these products, the services provided by merchants include: converting dummy fitting models into real models, providing clothing photos to directly generate model fitting pictures, and specifying the appearance characteristics of models, etc. In terms of specific operations, many merchants said that they use photos to generate pictures, "Just provide photos of clothing, preferably with fake models or real people wearing them, the effect will be better."

In terms of price, the reporter asked a number of shops and learned that if others help to generate pictures, the price of 3 to 10 pictures ranges from 100 yuan to 300 yuan. E-commerce operators can also purchase software and study tutorials by themselves, and use software artificial intelligence to generate the required model pictures.

The reporter chose a store with a monthly sales volume of more than 4,000 pieces. The first order is less than 1 yuan, and you can experience the "AI drawing instead of drawing" service once. According to the store's guidelines, the reporter provided clothing pictures and keywords such as "curly-haired girl", "cute" and "slim". After a few minutes, the other party gave 4 generated pictures.

In these pictures, the appearance of the models is in line with expectations, even more realistic, and looks little different from real people. However, the similarity of clothing styles is quite different. In addition to the color, the neckline design, sleeve length, sleeve edge, whether there is a belt or not, and the position of the decorations are all very different from the original picture.

"You can search for specific keywords." Facing the reporter's question, the store said that it can make the pictures more satisfactory by limiting the keywords, "provide pictures with real people or fake models wearing them, and the generated renderings will be better".

According to Zheng Zhifeng, an associate professor at the Civil and Commercial Law School of Southwest University of Political Science and Law and deputy director of the Cyberspace Governance Research Institute, the use of AI technology to generate model pictures is a reflection of the specific application scenarios of AI technology, which is conducive to reducing sales costs. At the same time, generative artificial intelligence technology can efficiently generate various model pictures in batches, and even many model pictures are very creative and aesthetically pleasing, but it is difficult for the generated content to be exactly the same as real models. The authenticity and accuracy require further development of algorithms .

Businessmen should fulfill their labeling obligations and be alert to the risk of portrait infringement

In order to regulate the application of artificial intelligence products, the State Internet Information Office and other three departments reviewed and passed the "Internet Information Service Deep Synthesis Management Regulations", which came into effect on January 10 this year, which clearly mentioned that deep synthesis service providers and Technical supporters should strengthen technical management, regularly review, evaluate, and verify the mechanism for generating synthetic algorithms. Deep synthesis service providers and technical supporters who provide models, templates, and other tools that can generate or edit biometric information such as faces and voices shall conduct security assessments by themselves or by entrusting professional institutions in accordance with the law.

The regulation also clarifies that deep synthesis service providers who provide face generation, face replacement, face manipulation, gesture manipulation and other image and video generation or editing services that significantly change personal identity characteristics, which may cause confusion or misidentification by the public, shall Significantly mark the reasonable position and area of the generated or edited information content to remind the public of the deep synthesis.

The "Interim Measures for the Management of Generative Artificial Intelligence Services" reviewed and approved by seven departments including the State Internet Information Office will come into effect on August 15 this year. It is emphasized again that generative artificial intelligence service providers should identify generated content such as pictures and videos in accordance with the "Regulations on the Administration of Deep Synthesis of Internet Information Services".

"In the field of e-commerce, especially in the process of displaying goods and products and services, the application trend of AI is inevitable." Liu Jinrui, a researcher at the Institute of the Rule of Law of the China Law Society, said that if merchants use AI for product display, they need to abide by the above two regulations. Legal regulations, fully inform consumers that the model map is generated by artificial intelligence, in order to fulfill the obligation of identification, and at the same time, it must also comply with the special regulatory provisions of the applicable scene, such as advertising law, e-commerce law, consumer rights protection law, etc.

However, the reporter's investigation found that no matter whether it is a merchant that uses an obvious animation character-style AI model picture, or a merchant that clearly advertises that it has a "highly anthropomorphic AI model" on a social platform, it does not have a specific product page. Identify the AI model map.

"The platform is responsible for supervision. For merchants using AI model pictures, if the platform is also a provider of technical services, they need to abide by the "Interim Measures for the Management of Generative Artificial Intelligence Services" and other laws and regulations. Take effective measures to supervise and ensure the order of the platform.” Zheng Zhifeng said.

It is worth noting that because some AI databases contain massive face data, some AI model images may be highly similar to real human faces after generation. In this regard, some netizens expressed concerns and raised questions about whether infringement was involved.

Wang Yegang, an associate professor and doctoral supervisor at the Central University of Finance and Economics School of Law, said: "If the pictures generated by a business through AI have a high degree of similarity with other people's portraits, so that others can identify the identity of a specific person from the AI pictures, the AI generated The picture should belong to the portrait of others, and the merchant should obtain the consent of the portrait right holder when making and using the picture, otherwise it will constitute an infringement of the portrait right of others.”

Zheng Zhifeng said that merchants should prohibit the intentional use of AI technology for illegal purposes, such as deliberately providing artificial intelligence with some illegal keywords to generate some pictures involving inappropriate content, or infringing on other people's portrait rights, reputation rights, and personal information rights. content; for the content generated by the normal use of artificial intelligence, it is also necessary to bear an appropriate duty of care to ensure that the generated content is compliant. If the generated content is found to be suspected of violating regulations, it should be reported to the technical service provider in a timely manner.