Elii Emeghebo, A Nigerian-Australian Model, Files Lawsuit Against Company Due To Al-Generated Image Described As A ‘White Twin’ – AfroTech
Elii Emeghebo is suing a company he modeled for after an AI-generated image appeared to closely resemble him.
ABC News Breakfast reports that the Nigerian-Australian spotted an image while walking past the window of Peter Jackson’s Pitt Street shop in Sydney. He had modeled for the brand in the past, yet recognized himself not in the original campaign images but in an image he described as his “white twin.” He claims it was an AI-generated image of his likeness.
“My nose was reshaped, my skin tone and my eye colour was significantly lightened, and there’s some reshaping around my eyebrows and my eye shape to be more Eurocentric and a lot less black,” Emeghebo told ABC News Breakfast. “It’s not a good thing when you go from a shoot, something you’re really proud of … and you walk past the shop and see basically you, but without your identity there. It was really confronting and really unfair.”
Emeghebo has filed a lawsuit against Peter Jackson Australia at the Australian Human Rights Commission, alleging it whitewashed his image, which he said was proof of racial discrimination, per the outlet. Additionally he said that the company failed to compensate him for the use of the images. He claims that the images were intended only to promote the brand on its digital channels.
“Human beings chose to use those particular images and decided the image that is devoid of Elii’s identity was the one they wanted to use,” said Paloma Buhagiar Cole, the principal legal officer of Victoria’s Young Workers Center, assisting Emeghebo with the case.
Cole also claims Emeghebo should have received a payment for an AI-generated image, according to ABC News Breakfast.
“He had a very specific contract that allowed for specific use … so they haven’t actually paid for the use of that image here,” Cole added.
Peter Jackson Australia acknowledged that “AI-assisted tools” were used resulting in a “substantially transformed image” of Emeghebo, per the outlet. The representative added that Emeghebo was fully compensated for the shoot and that the company used his “unaltered images across multiple channels in line with our agreement.”
Peter Jackson Australia also denied in a statement that the process “was undertaken because of Mr Emeghebo’s race, colour or ethnic origin is categorically denied,” according to ABC News Breakfast.
“Any suggestion that we intentionally engaged in racial discrimination is false, and we reject it unequivocally,” a representative said.
Emeghebo’s overall sentiment on the matter is that he wants to see industry-wide change to ensure this won’t happen again.
“I’d like to see a bigger change that helps to prevent these sorts of issues from cropping up further with the development of AI, and affecting more models like myself and people of colour,” he expressed, according to the outlet.
