Emerging Technologies

Don't know what to wear? This AI could create an outfit for you

Customers shop inside a department store in Shenyang, Liaoning province, November 6, 2013. China needs to sustain economic growth of 7.2 percent to ensure a stable job market, Premier Li Keqiang said as he warned the government against further expanding already loose money policies. In one of the few occasions when a top official has specified the minimum level of growth needed for employment, Li said calculations show China's economy must grow 7.2 percent annually to create 10 million jobs a year. REUTERS/Stringer (CHINA - Tags: BUSINESS TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY) CHINA OUT. NO COMMERCIAL OR EDITORIAL SALES IN CHINA

It works by combining two AI algorithms. Image: REUTERS/Stringer

Rob Smith
Writer, Forum Agenda

Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to radically improve our lives, from increasing global food production to helping to treat disease and shielding us from cyber attacks.

But here’s the rub: there are serious concerns that advances in technology will leave millions of people without jobs. A recent report by consultancy firm PwC found that in the UK, 30% of all jobs are at risk, including 2.25 million in the wholesale and retailing sectors.

For those in the fashion industry, this concern may be exacerbated by the development of an AI model capable of learning how a person likes to dress and inventing new outfits based on their preferences.

Image: Flaticon

The system was developed by scientists at the University of California, San Diego, and Adobe Research.

It works by combining two AI algorithms. The first is a convolutional neural network (CNN) that uses Amazon purchase data to learn a person’s preferences for certain products and suggest similar items – a feature that is already used by many online shopping sites.

However, the CNN data is then combined with a general adversarial network (GAN), which can be used to generate new images of items that are deemed most consistent with a person’s preferred style.

In other words, it has the potential to choose a variety of outfits based on products you have either searched for or purchased in the past. This is in addition to helping design new clothes and modifying existing outfits, the researchers say.

Left are suggestions for similar items based on Amazon purchase data; and right are synthetic images of items that a consumer might like based on their preferences. Image: University of California San Diego

While the tool is clearly exciting, it is not quite at a stage where it can actually choose a new outfit or replace a shopping assistant – but the idea has piqued the interest of several major technology companies.

Fashion forward

Last year, for example, Amazon’s Lab126 research and development arm developed a similar algorithm designed to analyze images and use the information to generate new styles.

Speaking to university magazine MIT Technology Review about this AI, Cornell University professor Kavita Bala said: “There’s been a whole move from companies like Amazon trying to understand how fashion develops in the world. This is completely changing the industry.”

In a similar vein, Google recently created an AI model that can accurately predict which images a human would like according to their aesthetic appeal.

Have you read?

According to Google, its Neural Image Assessment tool can be used to compare the quality of different versions of the same image, which may have been distorted in various ways, while also being used to enhance the perceptual quality of an image.

It could also be used to improve picture-taking in real-time and assist in the editing process, its developers claim.

Don't miss any update on this topic

Create a free account and access your personalized content collection with our latest publications and analyses.

Sign up for free

License and Republishing

World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

Stay up to date:

The Digital Economy

Share:
The Big Picture
Explore and monitor how The Digital Economy is affecting economies, industries and global issues
A hand holding a looking glass by a lake
Crowdsource Innovation
Get involved with our crowdsourced digital platform to deliver impact at scale
World Economic Forum logo
Global Agenda

The Agenda Weekly

A weekly update of the most important issues driving the global agenda

Subscribe today

You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in our emails. For more details, review our privacy policy.

5 ways to achieve effective cyber resilience

Filipe Beato and Jamie Saunders

November 21, 2024

Why AI is Southeast Asia's new engine for profitable growth

About us

Engage with us

  • Sign in
  • Partner with us
  • Become a member
  • Sign up for our press releases
  • Subscribe to our newsletters
  • Contact us

Quick links

Language editions

Privacy Policy & Terms of Service

Sitemap

© 2024 World Economic Forum