The bold move behind Vogue Polska’s AI-generated cover

Editor’s note: disclosure – Sofiia Padalko is a contributor for The Fix and also works for Vogue Polska. The reporting process was conducted independently from her position as Product Development Specialist at Vogue Polska.

2023 is gone and we’re going to remember it as generative AI’s breakout year. Polish media experiment with AI more and more boldly. For example, the national daily Gazeta Wyborcza tricked readers by publishing an AI-generated article; the Silesian regional radio station Piekary broadcasted a virtual radio presenter’s program as the first one in Poland; Jarosław Kuźniar, one of the most famous country’s journalists, uses AI to remaster his voice on a short daily-turned-weekly podcast “Ukraine in brief”. 

But what happens if a print fashion magazine with a powerful historical brand replaces models and photographers with AI to create the cover, which is its main selling element? We spoke to the Vogue Polska team, which entrusted the co-production of this year’s July/August issue’s cover and cover story to AI. Professor Aleksandra Przegalińska, a Polish futurist and Vice Rector at Kozminski University, told The Fix why this move is special for the Polish media market.

Cover by Midjourney and cover story co-written by ChatGPT

Vogue Polska‘s July/August issue cover features three strikingly similar models in a pastel office setting, sparking comparisons to young Lauren Bacall. Artist Nicola Bergamaschi generated the 15 cover images mainly using Stable Diffusion on Automatic1111 webUI and Midjourney.

The action started with a short conversation with ChatGPT, with the authors asking the algorithm to propose some concepts for the photoshoots related to the word “viral” (a topic of the issue). ChatGPT suggested using the concepts already embraced in Vogue Singapore or Vogue Italia photoshoots from February and April 2023 issues. The team didn’t choose any of these and focused on the unique cinema worlds of Kubrick, Allen, Pasolini, and Fellini instead. 

Maintaining an artistic approach in this project, Vogue Polska decided to cooperate with Bergamaschi because he creates his own visions, not just typical AI imagery, Szymon Machnikowski, Marketing and PR Director at Vogue Poland, told The Fix.

Vogue Polska Fashion Directors Ali Toth and Anikó Virág selected movie scenes, matched catwalk silhouettes, and produced a photo shoot of them on a white background in a Warsaw studio, inspiring Bergamaschi’s final work. Midjourney tests, with descriptive prompts and abstract commands, resulted in mind-blowing effects. AI struggled with nuances of facial features or body parts. We can see the model with one leg on the cover or the dog with two heads on one of the editorial photos. Despite initial intentions to transform models, AI limitations led to eerie effects, prompting a shift towards education and emphasising the contrast between studio and AI-generated images.

The team primarily used Midjourney’s blending function, allowing users to input five images and generate four graphic versions by deciding proportions and connections. Writing prompts proved challenging, requiring a shift for those accustomed to visual thinking. The team avoided interface tools like Photoshop, persisting until achieving optimal results.

Despite efforts, Midjourney sometimes failed to recognise certain objects. All fashion items used in the real-life photoshoot are unrecognisable, there are only impressions left and brand names in each photo description. This is a bold decision, challenging the norm of signing credits in fashion magazines, which is necessary when publishing branded products on their pages. This is what fashion magazines actually make for a living, Toth underlined  in an interview with Kamila Wagner, Vogue Polska fashion editor for the cover story.

The team also utilised other tools, such as Gigapixel AI from Topaz Labs for enhancing image quality and Stable Diffusion from Stability AI for selecting, masking, and filling parts of graphics with other generated images. These tools were necessary as generators, trained on low-quality internet images, faced limitations in creating large and detailed images.

Behind-the-scenes of the creative process was described in the cover story by Kamila Wagner, which she co-wrote with GPT-3.5, Chat GPT’s free version. While some generated fragments were used, most of the text was written by Wagner. The chat proved useful for creating summaries, analysing logical structures in the text, and conducting basic research. Still, it struggled with organising text fragments, identifying missing information, having limitations in terms of up-to-date data, and lacking knowledge about the text’s protagonists or current fashion collections. The machine also couldn’t mimic Wagner’s style, even though she “fed” it text samples, Vogue Polska fashion editor told The Fix. 

(It’s worth mentioning that GPT-4, the latest, paid version of LLM that powers ChatGPT, is capable of analysing images besides text, is less susceptible to incorrectly formulated prompts, has more advanced computational abilities, and does research online, not relying only on historical data).

Wagner regularly uses AI tools like GPT for audio transcription, translation, and image searches. GPT serves as her search engine, excelling at finding simple phrases. It helps her compose emails in different languages and generate questions for questionnaires, titles, and podcast descriptions. Image generators assist in creating essential visualisations for photo sessions, she adds.

After the publication of the summer issue of Vogue Polska, the publisher didn’t stop experimenting with AI. Published together with the Boston Consulting Group, report “Beyond Boundaries: Diversity & AI in Fashion” was illustrated with images created by an artist Konrad Marzec using Midjourney. “This time images were fully AI-generated, we didn’t want to use any real models due to the technique Marzec uses and because we believe that diversity and inclusivity should be also part of the imagery that goes directly from AI engines”, Vogue Polska Marketing &  PR Director told The Fix.

Public reaction and concerns

The cover has been acclaimed positively by Vogue Polska readers, social media fans, and followers. Most of them liked it as artwork or the cover itself, not considering any special reviews due to the fact it was created using AI, Machnikowski said. The July/August cover is the 8th most popular Vogue Polska cover on its Instagram in 2023, which is a quite good result taking into account that most of the 11 issues this year had two or three covers.

In working on the AI-generated cover story for Vogue Polska, ethical considerations were paramount, Toth told The Fix. First of all, the team ensured clear communication that the image was generated by AI. Other ethical aspects encompass cultural sensitivity, avoidance of harm to individuals or communities, mindful consideration of the potential impact of an AI-generated image, and ensuring the interpretability and explainability of the process. Users should have the ability to comprehend how decisions are made. He added that it involves protecting individuals’ privacy, integrating human oversight into the process, and considering the environmental impact of utilising an AI system.

In addressing potential legal considerations, Vogue Polska took care to ensure that the AI-generated images do not infringe on existing intellectual property rights, the magazine’s Fashion Director told The Fix. When the AI utilises pre-existing images for training data, it is crucial to secure the appropriate rights for their use. Additionally, the use of personal data, such as facial images, necessitates explicit consent from individuals. To comply with this, the team opted to create non-existing models for the cover image, according to Toth.

Poland doesn’t have regulations on AI and just like other EU countries is waiting for the adoption of the final version of the EU AI Act, which is yet to be formally approved. The future of AI regulations in the EU remains unclear, and they won’t enter into force at least until 2025.

Aleksandra Przegalińska, a Polish futurist and Vice Rector at Kozminski University, praised Vogue Polska’s use of AI for a cover shoot as both timely and intriguing, emphasising its potential in creative processes and its societal implications. She sees it as an opportunity to engage the public, sparking curiosity and debates about authenticity in art and design. 

“The Polish audience, while increasingly tech-savvy, still harbours a mix of excitement and reservations about AI. In my view, while it’s a bold move, it’s also an opportunity to engage the public in a conversation about the evolving relationship between AI and creativity. Whether the audience was ready or not, it certainly sparked a dialogue”, Przeglińska told The Fix.

Asked about the predictions on AI development in the Polish media industry, Przeglińska mentioned more intense AI adoption in such areas as content personalisation, analytics, and automated content generation. Also, we might see more partnerships between Polish media outlets and tech companies to develop bespoke AI solutions. Given Europe’s focus on privacy and data protection (e.g. GDPR), Polish media might prioritise developing ethical AI solutions that respect user privacy more than some counterparts in other regions. Western models might not always be directly applicable to the Polish context, Przegalińska says. The AI tools will need to be sensitive to local cultural, linguistic, and societal nuances. In comparison to Western countries, the main difference might lie in the pace of adoption and the depth of integration, she adds.

Source of the cover photo: AI-generated Vogue Polska July/August 2023 issue cover by Nicola Bergamaschi (photo: courtesy of Vogue Polska)

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