Marc Jacobs’ Fall 2023 presentation in New York featured show notes generated by ChatGPT.
The decision to utilize ChatGPT in this manner comes amid an ongoing conversation about the technology’s potential dangers, with everyone from concerned artists to the literal CEO of OpenAI voicing their fears about the need for forward-thinking policy updates.
The show notes, titled “Marc Jacobs: A striking fusion of masculine tailoring and feminine elegance,” are officially credited as being “written by: OpenAI, ChatGPT.” The notes give highlights from the decidedly brief presentation including “men’s suiting for women,” “flat shoes and black tights,” “altered gowns in black and white,” and “the power of monochrome.” The show is further described in the notes as one that “mesmerized its audience with an awe-inspiring fusion of masculine tailoring feminine elegance.”
In short, it all reads very much like one would expect when it comes to ChatGPT at this stage. And that's likely the point, as the label's Fall 2023 show was arguably crafted to serve as a commentary on where we all find ourselves at this current moment in post-truth society. All told, per a review from Vanessa Friedman for the New York Times, the in-person experience lasted just three minutes.
While this use of ChatGPT was clearly intended to offer a reflection on its limitations and a ponderance on our collective inability to truly digest anything that isn’t swiftly hand-fed to us, it's always worth pointing out in AI-focused articles that the concenrs many have raised remain an issue worth heightened attention.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, for example, admitted he was “nervous” about what could be ahead while speaking at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in May.
"I think if this technology goes wrong, it can go quite wrong," Altman said at the time. "And we want to be vocal about that. We want to work with the government to prevent that from happening. But we try to be very clear-eyed about what the downside case is and the work that we have to do to mitigate that.”
Altman also called for the government to take action by way of regulation in the AI space, noting that rules in terms of disclosure (i.e. ensuring a person knows when they're interacting with AI-generated materials) are particularly important moving forward.
