Model licenses her likeness to AI startup as fashion industry adapts to generative tools

A fashion model who said her work dropped sharply after the COVID-19 pandemic and the arrival of generative artificial intelligence has licensed her name, image and likeness to an AI startup that creates brand campaigns featuring real talent.

Hannah James began working with Kartel.ai after saying commissions fell to "a quarter to 30 percent" of prior levels. James told the Daily Mail that the arrangement lets her earn from her image without attending time-consuming physical shoots and that she was "excited" to use AI as a tool in her industry.

Kartel.ai, which works with models and creatives to license imagery for ads, said it builds Low-Rank Adaptation models, known as LoRAs, to train AI systems to recognize and reproduce specific people or visual styles. Ben Kusin, Kartel's co-founder, said the company collaborates with producers, creative directors and models to create campaign stills and video without requiring a full, practical shoot.

"Brands and businesses can pick a model, select how they want to work with them, license them, and then we will go build a campaign with them in it," Kusin told the Daily Mail. He described the company’s creatives as using AI to move "10 times faster" than traditional shoots while keeping humans in control of storyboards, editing and overall direction.

Kartel's approach differs from fully synthetic campaigns that assemble images from internet-sourced material without direct permission. The firm says it secures authorization and pays models for the right to use their likenesses, and it frames its work as an attempt to reskill creatives for production that integrates AI tools.

The use of AI-generated imagery in fashion is already visible in the market. Brands and startups such as FanPro, Lalaland.ai, Deep Agency and The Diigitals have developed business models around synthetic models, and a recent Guess campaign that used AI-generated models drew swift backlash when images appeared in a major magazine and were criticized for replacing real models and promoting unattainable standards.

Experts expect that trend to expand. Nell Watson, a fellow at Singularity University and author of Taming the Machine: Ethically Harness the Power of AI, told the Daily Mail she expects smaller and fast-fashion brands to rely increasingly on AI-generated images because the technology reduces cost and speeds content creation. Watson said luxury brands will likely continue to use traditional models for now.

A Stanford study released in August found that adoption of generative AI correlated with a 13 percent decline in employment for early-career workers in affected occupations. Kusin acknowledged that automation can cause job loss, but said parts of media production had been contracting before the technology’s recent expansion and argued that AI can create new kinds of work for creatives.

Legal protections for likeness and image use remain underdeveloped. Attorneys and scholars describe a "wild west" period in which technological capabilities outpace regulatory and statutory frameworks. Yelena Ambartsumian, founder of AMBART LAW in New York, said protections vary with a model’s prominence: high-profile figures can pursue federal claims such as false endorsement under the Lanham Act, while lesser-known models may need to rely on state privacy and publicity laws.

Ambartsumian noted two distinct scenarios for AI-generated images. One uses hyper-realistic replicas created from licensed material of a specific person, while the other composes imagery from variations and amalgamations of existing internet content. The former is easier to trace to a specific person and thus more straightforward to litigate; the latter can be more difficult to prove as an unauthorized use of any single model's likeness.

Regulators and courts have yet to establish comprehensive rules governing commercial use of synthetic imagery, and observers say it can take years for legislation or case law to catch up with rapid innovation. Advocates for models and creatives caution that without clear legal standards and industry best practices, individuals with less representation or bargaining power may be vulnerable to unauthorized or underpaid uses of their images.

Companies like Kartel emphasize written licensing agreements to ensure models are compensated and to preserve some control over how their likenesses are used. Kusin said the company aims to keep humans in the lead on creative decisions and to provide models with approval rights on campaigns that use their likenesses.

The transition is reshaping how content is produced. Proponents argue that AI tools allow brands to produce a wider range of imagery quickly and to include more diverse or tailored visuals at lower cost. Critics warn that increased reliance on synthetic content could diminish jobs for photographers, stylists and models and that it raises broader ethical questions about transparency, representation and consumer deception.

As AI tools and business models evolve, industry participants say they expect a mixed future in which runway shows and in-person productions coexist with AI-enabled campaigns. Kusin said he did not foresee an all-AI future for high-fashion events and urged conversations about how humans and machines should coexist in storytelling and entertainment.

The debate over how to balance innovation, compensation and legal protection for creatives continues as brands, startups and regulators grapple with the implications of generative AI for an industry where image and likeness are central to value.