On July 21st, Elon Musk shared a tweet featuring an AI-generated fashion show of world leaders. The AI fashion show soon went viral, given the satirical depiction of world leaders and due to its realistic appearance. Although the fashion show was clearly generated by AI, the video did demonstrate the extent to which this technology had advanced and the growing ability to create highly believable fake content. Journalists and newspapers soon commented on the AI fashion show discussing the advancements made in generating “DeepFake” videos in visuals. Yet the AI fashion show is also important as it illustrates how tech moguls such as Musk view power and global politics while also offering insight into the growing merging of politics, technology and pop culture.
One of the important elements in the AI fashion show is its participants. The show begins with a religious icon- Pope Francis. Although the Pope is an important and recognized world leader, he is the only religious figure to appear in the fashion show and he struts down the runway holding a golden cross. The visual of the Pope is symbolic in several ways. It demonstrates that in today’s world, religion no longer holds the place it once did as only one religious leader is part of the fashion show. It may also symbolize the fact that some tech brands have become a form of religion while tech moguls assume a cult-like status. Apple users may be as dedicated and devoted to this brand as other people are to Christianity. The Pope may have also opened the fashion show given that in the past religious figures anointed national leaders as is still the case with royal coronations. In the fashions show the Pope anoints today’s leaders. This symbolic gesture may offer viewers a sense of continuity, and a consoling feeling in a time of constant change and disruption.
Importantly, the Pope appears in a white coat clearly referencing another AI image generated in the past which depicted the Pop in a “Puffer” coat. This is an important detail as it suggests that AI generated images, and DeepFake images, are as powerful and impactful as traditional images. DeepFake and AI-generated images enter a collective visual reservoir of symbols, or collective visual consciousness, much like iconic photographs from history. AI-generated images become part of the global visual vocabulary and can become a reference that is meaningful to a global and digital public. Moreover, like photographs, AI generated images cannot be “unseen”. Those who saw the fake image of the Pope in the white “Puffer” coat will never unsee him. They may have even developed a new fondness for the Pope following this image. As an article in GQ magazine argued “The Pope Francis Puffer Photo Was Real in Our Hearts”
The fashion show includes world leaders, such as American President Biden and Chinese President Xi, alongside tech moguls such as X CEO Elon Musk, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and Apple’s Tim Cook. There is a clear statement here that in today’s world, which is governed by technology, tech CEOs hold the same level of influence and power as national leaders. This new powerful position of tech moguls has been quite evident in the Russia-Ukraine War where one mogul, Musk, has played a key role in Ukraine’s ability to wage war. Musk has enabled Ukraine to use his Starlink satellite system to connect to the internet. This allows the Ukrainians military to practice connected warfare while allowing the Ukrainian government to keep operating its different websites and web resources. The fact that the AI show was shared and possibly created by Musk indicates that tech moguls now view themselves on par with leaders of superpowers.
What is perhaps most important about the video is its depiction of world leaders as fashionable, as walking down a familiar runway while showcasing their garments. According to Zygmunt Bauman, the goal of fashion is to seduce. Fashion labels constantly seduce us to purchase new and in vogue items. But fashion is, by nature, unattainable as what is in vogue constantly changes. Indeed, the most fashionable person today would by definition be the least fashionable person tomorrow. The logic of fashion is thus not only to seduce but to create an insatiable desire, a desire that leads us to purchase one brand of jeans today only to abandon it tomorrow in favor of a new brand or a new design.
The AI fashion show makes two suggestions. The first is that political leaders are essentially brands. This is not a new conclusion as the personalization of politics and emergence of social media has encouraged politicians to create a brand for themselves as a way of distinguishing themselves from other candidates and appealing to voters online. These brands consist of two elements, the political and the personal, the candidate’s vision for their country and their nature or personality.
Yet the AI fashion show suggests that political brands have evolved and now include two new elements. The first is the appeal of notoriety. The image of Donald Trump walking down the runway in a glamorous orange prison suit accessorized with handcuffs sends this exact message as does the “bad boy” visual of North Korea’s Kim Jong Un wearing a branded Kim sweater. Much like notorious rappers these notorious world leaders are in vogue. Second, the political brand now also obeys the logic of fashion. Political leaders are adopted one day and discarded the next, much like a pair of jeans. There is no room for political ideology anymore, only the ideology of fashion which dictates that we support those leaders who are in vogue at any given moment. This is a highly cynical view of politics, especially when espoused by an influential tech mogul.
A final important element in this AI fashion show is gender reversals. Both Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Canada’s Justin Trudeau are depicted as a woman wearing a dress, while Hillary Clinton walks down the runway in a suit. Gender reversals, or gender swapping, may be used to critique gender norms or to highlight gender-based stereotypes. Yet in this video gender reversal is used in a disparaging way. The video mocks Putin by questioning his masculinity, it ridicules Trudeau as being so progressive and “woke” that he becomes a woman, and it lambasts Clinton by denying her femininity and depicting her as a male wannabe. These are all chauvinist tropes as they all manifest blatant aggression through gender bias.
The AI fashion show is no mere video shared by an anonymous Twitter user. It is a statement by a powerful tech mogul on society, politics and technology. It is a manifesto of a Silicon Valley giant who regards himself as a religious messiah, who views technology as a new religion, who applauds notoriety as a political virtue and who views progressive politics as a “woke” mind virus while longing for a world dominated by strong men.
It is a disturbing glimpse into the mind of Elon Musk and possibly into the zeitgeist of all tech moguls.
