Rogue + Wolf’s Journey: Fashion, Technology, and Ethics in the Age of AI
You might have noticed the recent explosion of Artificial Intelligence (AI) software and AI-enabled tools. The latest AI technologies are seeing massive and rapid adoption across all industries.
You might also have noticed the long threads of comments in our social media that mostly revolve around the demand to “stop using AI”. We have noticed for sure. 😅
We generally prefer to stay in our cave and design but we believe this situation demands a public conversation. Grab some cold brew coffee or a fine chamomile-lavender infusion and sit back for a relaxed read.
Our Passion
We, Eloise and Michael, started Rogue + Wolf in 2012 from our living room with a crazy vision: let’s use 3D printing to manufacture products people enjoy, sidestepping traditional manufacturing. 3D printing had just become available to consumers at scale through companies like Shapeways and we thought: “surely we can use it for full manufacturing of retail-ready products... right?”. Wild idea at the time but we took a leap of faith! Long story short, we decided that jewellery was the only (barely) viable product we could personally enjoy making. Fast forward a few years and we were in disbelief as thousands of people were enjoying our black nylon, 3D printed jewellery that seemed like wild fantasy at conception.
That was the start of Rogue + Wolf but our story should start even further back. The two of us have been a couple IRL for 20+ years. At around 2005 we came across the work of futurist and inventor Ray Kurzweil, well summarised in his book The Singularity Is Near. We were techno-optimists and forward thinking since young, before we even met, but reading about the possible future and how soon this could arrive blew our minds. We believed and agreed with Ray’s analysis and kept our eyes open for early corroborating evidence.
3D printing was our first intimate contact with future technologies, our promised sci-fi future. And we dove right in, knowing that we were possibly too early and 3D printing was not quite ready for mass adoption yet. We think that gamble paid off and even today, 12 years later, it’s still kind of early for mass adoption of 3D printing. But early adoption is in the core of Rogue + Wolf, it’s our lifeblood.
We firmly believed that AI is coming in the 2020s, even though it felt like a crazy idea in the early 2000s. Around 80% of related scientists and researchers at the time believed that human level AI would take 100 years to develop. And here we are! 20 years of uncertainty and anticipation later, human level computer cognition is finally here. We dove right in, literally vibrating with excitement.
The Potential of AI
Artificial Intelligence means achieving thinking and learning on a non-biological substrate, e.g. a computer. This ability has finally been achieved, the latest AI techniques can match or outperform human level skill on a massive range of specific tasks, especially around written word and visual composition. AI is also far, far beyond human skill level in complex scientific tasks like drug discovery and protein folding.
Humanity now has human-level competence on tap. It’s hard to compare this development with any past technological advancements, maybe the development of language was the last comparable event in magnitude and importance. Intelligence is the most powerful force in the universe and humanity has just taken a big step towards mastering it.
We are on the cusp of unlocking abundance in most areas of life, from food, to education, to health, to art.
The Dangers of AI
We can see the frustration, worry, and even fear about AI technologies out there. In all honesty, we expected some pushback but were still surprised by the speed and intensity, since we’ve always seen this new technology as positive and anticipating it for decades. Of course there are always risks bundled with progress. If humanity did not push through the risks though, we would still mostly be subsistence farmers like our great grandfathers.
Humanity of course will have to work towards a compassionate application of new technologies as always. But we do not consider non-adoption a real option. Any countries that stifle progress in the field of AI will fade to insignificance very fast and it’s pretty clear that state leaders recognise this already.
It’s not that worries about AI are not real, there are even existential risks involved, it’s that the only viable solution is to work through them. “Stop using AI” is one of the worst approaches to the problem because then we allow someone else to decide how AI will be used. One of the worst outcomes for a population can be to allow a state actor with antithetical world views to be 100 times more advanced, becoming our de facto hegemon. We should deploy AI faster and more compassionately than those who would not.
A low risk, low societal repercussions industry like fashion is the least of humanity’s worries. An independent tiny design team of 5 people using AI technologies to the best of their abilities is an insignificant concern. We would argue that this should actually be promoted. We are worried about our relevance in the broader economy as well and we know that every major company in the world is deploying AI as fast as they can manage. We believe we can do it in our own unique way though and there can be value for society in this.
Our Thoughts
We can share our point of view about AI as designers and fellow humans and we will do just that in future posts. But we are talking about monumental, society shifting, once-in-history type of events here. The ethical implications are important and we believe it would be better if you read the writings of the best philosophers, technologists, and sociologists that humanity has to offer, rather than the views of a couple of designers.
We’ll share our point of view and experience in any case, for whomever these might be useful to. Many people insist that we explain ourselves anyway, so might as well we do. We are in favour of embedding AI in every appropriate human activity, in the most compassionate way possible. We don’t believe non-adoption is an option.
We can attempt to explain our stance over a few future posts. Writing thoughtful posts can possibly work better than answering to individual comments or emails. And as much as we’d love to chat with everyone, all 5 of us would be only answering comments all day if we tried that.
On that note, long arguments in the Facebook and Instagram comments improve the reach of our account because social media algorithms like and promote drama and that sort of thing. However we would prefer that everyone has thoughtful and deep discussions about AI and how humanity adopts it, rather than heated arguments on social so we will avoid playing the algorithms.
Coming Up
We’ll aim to write about a post per week covering one of the massive amount of topics touched above. From design to ethics, from job losses to geopolitics, from how to use AI responsibly to how to avoid bringing the End Times, there’s a lot worth talking about. We will try to give priority to subjects that we see people are concerned more about.
The Bottom Line
We believe that we can all work towards a bright future of abundance and prosperity, technology is always the main human effort towards this goal, our way of overcoming ourselves.
We’re committed to deploying new technologies compassionately and taking ethical decisions in life and business, which is never easy or simple. Yes this is the path we’ve always walked, regardless of how rough or winding it is.
Please go out there and read the writings of people much smarter than us. But if you would like to hear the non-expert but specialised opinions of a small indie design team then do keep an eye on this blog, follow us on social, etc to come back for the next blog post.
With love and optimism,
Michael and Eloise
Founders and Directors of Rogue + Wolf
Edit 01/03/2024: we wrote the next blog post about job losses AI and Job Transformation.
Edit 08/03/2024: our next blog post about AI photography and the future of photography
Edit 01/03/2024: we wrote the next blog post about job losses AI and Job Transformation.
Edit 08/03/2024: our next blog post about AI photography and the future of photography
Edit 15/03/2024: next we talk about fashion photography standards and how AI photoshoots are not that different.
Edit 23/03/2024: we rote about some more reasons why we use AI.
Edit 29/03/2024: we wrote some examples from other industries to bring our AI adoption arguments into focus.
Edit 29/03/2024: we wrote some examples from other industries to bring our AI adoption arguments into focus.
Hi Michael and Eloise.
While I speculate you taking a stance and finally setting a lot of your customers questions, it has only reaffirmed that I, unfortunately, will never purchase from you. As a small business, I understand the implementation of AI can drastically improve several key elements in your business practice, but on the other side of the coin, you should understand that you’re taking jobs away from other people too. It costs you nothing to implement an ambassador program like so many other companies, and have REAL PEOPLE wearing your items in REAL PICTURES. If you want AI pictures generated for homewares, I guess, but clothes only fall naturally on a human. I can’t buy any of your clothes with the hopes it will fit me the same as your model, cause your model is literally a figment of someone else’s imagination, AI uses stolen photos from other artists and models, compositing them into one within your specifications. So not only are you withholding jobs from people, you’re stealing as well. If that’s where your ethics stand, this is no company for me. 🖤 Such a disappointment
Hi Michael & Eloise
As a fellow tech nerd I get where you’re coming from. But I do NOT share your views.
There are tons of brands that implement AI without taking jobs away from real artists and models.
The whole book community has decided against full use of AI.
They use it to better images, add to images, but not to make them.
You as a brand and creator yourself should understand that taking jobs away from such a niche world is huge.
And not listening to your costumers is the worst thing you can do.
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