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Skincare company used AI video and images for an ad. This is why DKos should ban AI images now. [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2025-04-10

I’m one of the longest-tenured members of Daily Kos—I’ve been here since 2004, member ID 18,332 (before 2021, I was known as Christian Dem in NC). In the last two decades, I haven’t waded into meta issues that often. But I feel I must in light of the recent debate on whether AI images have any place on this site.

Earlier this week, Madisonian called for Daily Kos to amend its Rules of the Road to include a ban on AI images. It seems like common sense—there are numerous copyright issues with AI images, not to mention moral ones. Well, earlier today, Robyn Pennachia of Wonkette surfaced something that should pretty much end the debate. It seems that a skincare company got the bright idea to use AI images to splice a bogus ad promoting their products. To my mind, it shows that there is no place for AI images here, or on any reputable blog. Period.

Recently, Skaind, a startup skincare company, posted a video showing wellness podcaster Rich Roll interviewing wellness influencer Arielle Lorre, ex-wife of producer Chuck Lorre, about how her skincare issues—and seemingly crediting Skaind products with improving her look. There was just one problem—it wasn’t real. Roll and Lorre had never even met before, and neither of them even knew Skaind existed until they got DMs about the ad.

Lorre sent a message to Skaind asking them to take the ad down, and also had her lawyers send a formal cease and desist letter to Skaind. However, Skaind’s response showed it was so far from the plot it needs a life preserver.

“We wanted to apologize for the use of a video clip of you in our recent advertising campaign. We want to clarify that at no time was it our intention to use your image or voice without authorization,” they wrote. “Our marketing team accessed this content through an artificial intelligence platform without being aware that it was a recognized person or with image rights.” While the idea of a marketing team being able to trot on over to to an artificial intelligence platform and make a video of anyone endorsing their product is creepy enough to begin with, the idea that it’s only bad because she’s a “recognized person” is somehow worse. Does that mean it would be okay if they just plucked a random person without many followers off of TikTok or another video platform to endorse their product?

Skaind’s claim that they didn’t know Lorre was a “recognized person” didn’t pass the smell test given how they created the AI version of her. In a TikTok post, Lorre revealed that Skaind culled numerous videos of her to create her AI version. And yet, despite all of this, Instagram told Lorre this didn’t violate its community standards. Lorre didn’t buy it, pointing out in her TikTok video that it’s illegal to “steal someone’s image for commercial use.”

Pennachia noted the contrast between how Meta and Instagram handled a similar furor two years ago when Tom Hanks and Gayle King got wind that sketchy companies created AI versions of them to promote their products. Instagram swiftly nuked the videos, saying that its policies didn’t allow the use of “public figures in a deceptive nature in order to try to scam people out of money.”

That didn’t sit well with Pennachia at all.

It’s especially creepy in this instance because both Lorre and Ross, while known to those who follow them, are only about medium-famous. They’re not Gayle King or Tom Hanks famous, but the only reason they found out that they were featured in this obscure skincare’s internet ad was because enough people saw them and told them about it.

Pennachia adds—and rightly—that Lorre and Ross had the wherewithal to pay lawyers to turn the screws on Skaind. Most of the rest of us don’t, meaning that even if they do find out, “what recourse will they have if they do?”

Those using AI images and video here should ask themselves—do you want it on your conscience that you’re using media that was potentially stolen and manipulated? Do you want it on your conscience that you could be harming someone who may not even know their image was being used in this way? We’re supposed to be better than this.

Bottom line—this isn’t just unethical, but potentially puts Kos Media at risk for being sued out of existence. AI images and video have no place here. Period.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/4/10/2315823/-Skincare-company-used-AI-video-and-images-for-an-ad-This-is-why-DKos-should-ban-AI-images-now?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=latest_community&pm_medium=web

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