Is Big Tech Fashion’s Biggest Wannabe?

“What Anthropic is doing is interesting because it’s trying to give culture to the intangible material,” said Tom Garland, founder of brand consultancy Edition + Partners. “You can’t ‘photograph’ AI, and it’s hard to dramatize it. So pop-ups, objects, merchandise, print — those things give it texture. They make it feel clearer in the real world.”

Technology as a cultural statement

Anthropic relies on pop-up models from the fashion industry to build cultural cachet and trust, while rival chatbot maker OpenAI commissioned creatives directly from the fashion industry to help build its first-ever brand storytelling campaign for ChatGPT. its first three part film series everyday momentsReleased last September, it was directed by Miles Jay (known for his fashion and music work including Adidas and Nike ads), and the stills were shot by fashion photographer Samuel Bradley. Fashion and collaborates with brands such as Burberry and Lacoste), with styling by Carlos Nazario, whose work covers Gucci, Prada, Marni, etc.

It’s part of a wider trend in the tech world to poach fashion talent, which some creative industry sources believe has been intensifying in recent months. Garland said his agency has experienced growing demand from tech brands, who are asking him the same thing: We know what the product does, but how do we make people care? Or, how do we stop looking like a company and start looking like a brand?

“Many of these businesses have spent years obsessively focusing on functionality, clarity, and performance language. Now, they realize that uniqueness exists elsewhere, too. It’s in code, taste, tone, casting, graphics systems, language, physical experience, and community,” Garland continued. “Their focus is on fashion and lifestyle because those worlds are better at turning products into symbols and are used to doing that quickly. Every time a new collection comes out, we want to understand what consumers want at that moment and produce relevant products over and over again.”

OpenAI’s film positions the chatbot as a supportive, everyday presence that helps users engage in real-life interactions, while eschewing highly polished futuristic AI visuals in favor of a low-fidelity human feel.