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Vogue’s August issue is causing quite a stir online, and not just because Anne Hathaway in on the cover. In its famed pages was an ad featuring a model who looked like she just came out of a fashion fever dream, and when something looks too good to be true, it most likely is.

An advertisement in the magazine by Guess featured a model generated by Seraphinne Vallora using AI and X users are up in arms over what they see as an infringement on fashion’s creativity and spaces for real models.

This isn’t the first time an AI model has been in Vogue — the June 2024 Portugal issue featured a fully AI-generated model on its cover. It isn’t even the first time AI has been used to enhance pictures — in their May 2023 edition Vogue Italy used AI to create the background of a cover featuring Bella Hadid.

Though the American version of Vogue did not feature an AI model on its cover or in an editorial, it did approve an AI-generated ad in its pages, and for many people, that’s a big problem.

With airbrushed skin, symmetrical features, and proportions that would have many wondering what her workout routine was, the model was perfect, almost too perfect, and people caught on instantly.

The two-page advertisement was by Guess and featured a fully AI-generated model. In the top left corner on one of the pages, in very fine print, was the disclaimer, “Produced by Seraphinne Vallora on AI”.

They were also horrified that this ad was allowed in Vogue’s hallowed pages. The magazine has long been the pinnacle of fashion journalism and for it to approve an AI-generated ad may send a message to the industry that the use of AI in fashion is okay.

Many people seemed to have confused the matter, assuming that Vogue itself used an AI model for the shoot. It was an advertisement in the magazine, as many users have pointed out.

However, that it was an ad doesn’t make it okay for Vogue to have included it in its pages.

Some might ask why it matters so much. We’ve been warned for years that AI could come for our jobs, that one day, nearly half the workforce could be replaced by AI algorithms. So by including an AI-generated ad, isn’t Vogue just evolving with the times? Why are we angry at a fashion magazine for doing what every industry is being pushed to do? Here’s why — because it’s losing its soul.

Fashion has always meant more than just being a pretty picture — it’s about history, identity, rebellion, and storytelling. While AI can be trained on aesthetics, at its core, it can never achieve the essence of artistic expression that can only be produced by humans.

To sum up people’s responses:

At the end of the day it was just a Guess ad, but maybe that’s exactly why it matters. If even a single ad in a fashion magazine can stir up this much debate, maybe we’re not just reacting to AI models — we’re reacting to a shift we can’t quite name yet. Maybe it’s just a blip, or maybe it’s the start of something feels inevitable to many, ultimately signalling that creative industries that should thrive on passion and innovation are going to be replacing people with AI, even in their highest echelons. And that’s pretty scary.