SheerLuxe released their newest team member in an official announcement on the 16th July. Reem Bot, an AI fashion and lifestyle editor powered by the SheerLuxe team, was added to their meet the team page with an in-depth interview with the bot.
The company have since received backlash after the launch of Reem, with critics and journalists questioning why SheerLuxe have ‘employed’ an AI brand ambassador instead of a real person. Journalists have commented how tough the industry is to break into, particularly in fashion, and continued to criticise that opportunities have been taken away from real people.
Who is Reem?
Reem is a fashion and lifestyle editor powered by the SheerLuxe team. In Reem’s introductory blog, they talk about their style, influences and dream wardrobe. Reem is everything you would expect from a fashion journalist, even mentioning style influence taken from popular culture and movies.
Reem credits their current style as classic paired with the unexpected. The fashion journalist recommends styles for various budgets from designer to Highstreet and even preloved. Reem’s article reads like a typical style editorial. But this is accredited to the people behind Reem, the SheerLuxe team, as no AI content (other than images of Reem herself) are published by the team.
The company have said that Reem’s role, like the other editors, is to curate recommendations for their audience across a variety of topics like fashion, beauty and travel.
Whats the controversy around the new AI editor?
While AI has many benefits for content creation, recommendations and inspiration the SheerLuxe and fashion community are not happy with Reem’s introduction. The main reason for this is the ethnicity for the AI bot. Reem is speculated to be a woman of Middle Eastern heritage, with their name having Arabic origins. People were quick to say that SheerLuxe are “depriving human journalists of jobs”. Critics have further asked why the fashion magazine would create an AI woman of colour, rather than hiring one.
The bot was created in partnership with an AI Imagery Creator from the Middle East, and this is reflected in Reem’s likeness, says the company. “Reem was born entirely from our desire to experiment with AI” SheerLuxe says. In a statement from Instagram the company added “she is an AI generated image only and is not able to create content or articles”.
SheerLuxe has responded to critics claims by saying “No jobs were compromised in any way as a result of her creation, and we would never publish any content that hasn’t had human involvement.” Although Reem’s creation has faced much backlash, not all responses have been negative. Some have praised the magazine for being “innovative” and embracing new technology.
AI and tech experts have argued that the company are not taking opportunities away from journalists. Because Reem isn’t replacing anybody in the industry. But instead it’s more like their AI bot is becoming a brand ambassador for SheerLuxe rather than a journalist. Dan Sodergren, told BBC News “it’s good they were using an innovation, but I just think they probably used it in the wrong way”.
How has this impacted SheerLuxe?
SheerLuxe have issued an apology, in a statement they said “Since the start of SheerLuxe, innovation has been central to what we do”. The company continued to say “As we enter a new era of tech and AI, we wanted to stay at the forefront – it is clear we didn’t explain it properly and we’re sorry.”.
At the start of the week that Reem was launched, SheerLuxe’s Instagram account had 467,000 followers. By Wednesday the number had dropped, and by the Thursday it had dropped again. The drop in numbers was only by a couple of thousand. But this has already shown a reflection of how fans are reacting to the new bot. Despite this, as the saying goes, any publicity is good publicity. So in the long run, the initial negative reactions and PR, SheerLuxe might discover that they’ve attracted more visitors to their site who are keen to find out more about their AI-powered bot.
SheerLuxe creating Reem have opened up wider questions about the future of AI and its role within journalism. For more information about the power of AI or if you would like to try affiliate marketing, or influencer marketing, get in touch with our team. Send us an email to team@modo25.com
