Guess Co-Founder Defends A.I. Model, Says Real Models Won’t Ever Disappear

The future is female — and apparently fake too, ’cause Guess is getting roasted for using an A.I. model in their new ads … but the brand’s co-founder is out here sticking to his guns, telling us there’s no danger of real-life human models going extinct.

Paul Marciano — the fashion brand’s co-founder — tells TMZ he’s always been one to shake things up, like when he dropped that bold red logo in ’85 while everyone else was stuck in B&W. And it’s the same vibe now … A.I.’s just the new toy in town, so it caught his eye and he ran with it!

Paul tells us he’s blown away by how real it looks. So when he stumbled on an IG account of an A.I.-driven marketing agency run by creator Seraphinne Vallora, it had him hooked … especially since one of their A.I. models had total Guess girl vibes.

Paul admits he’s not sure if it’s a forever thing, but one thing’s clear — he’s not making decisions based on the backlash, or anyone else’s opinions.

Paul says Guess has always had an eye for the next “It” girl — and they still love working with real models. In fact, the next campaign is all human. But at the end of the day, he just wanted to try something new that caught his interest.