Naomi Campbell Debuts Humane AI Pin at Coperni’s Paris Fashion Week Show

As the debate over the risks and benefits of AI continues to rage, Coperni designers Sébastien Meyer and Arnaud Vaillant weighed in—with a fashion statement.

When supermodel Naomi Campbell walked their Paris Fashion Week runway on Friday, she was sporting the Humane AI Pin on a beautifully proportioned pin-striped blazer with dropped lapels. A selection of the other looks followed suit, with other models also wearing the distinctive tech panel.

According to the show notes, Campbell was the first person outside of the Humane company to wear the device in public. They also revealed that the pin will be fully unveiled November 9.

The notes describe the pin as a “screen-less standalone device and software platform built from the ground up for AI,” and that the wearable “uses a range of sensors that enable natural and intuitive compute interactions, and is designed to weave seamlessly into users’ day-to-day lives.”

They explain that the device features “AI-powered optical recognition and a laser-projected display,” and has no need for a smartphone in order to operate. They also emphasize that the wearable device has no wake word to activate, nor is it always listening to you. 

According to a statement by Humane co-founders Imran Chaudhri (a former Apple designer) and Bethany Bongiorno, “our relationship with technology is changing profoundly, becoming even more personal as our devices morph into extensions of our bodies, minds, and hearts.”

Coperni’s Meyer and Vaillant added that for their part, the AI Pin aligns with their vision of “forward-thinking fashion.” Said vision—“that design, creativity and technology can be a huge driver and cultural force for change”—is considered integral to the brand’s DNA.

Last season the Fall ’23 Coperni show featured a cameo from four bright yellow robot dogs, known as “Spot” robots, created by U.S. tech outfit Boston Dynamics. One proceeded to interact with model Rianne Van Rompaey, gently removing a wrap to reveal the dress she was wearing underneath.

The concept was based on a contemporary reimagining of 17th-century author Jean de la Fontaine’s fable, “The Wolf and the Lamb.” Whereas de la Fontaine’s lamb met rather a gruesome end in the original story, the Coperni interpretation was designed to show how humans and machines can work in harmony.

Last week, Coperni debuted the first installments of a polymorphic video campaign starring Lila Grace Moss (Kate Moss’ daughter) derived from the fable. 

It will run in real time via Epic Games’ Unreal Engine, constantly evolving over the next six months, both on a dedicated website (thewolfandthelamb.stream) and on the Coperni YouTube channel. The ever-changing series of over 320,000 versions—each episode 40 seconds in duration—is based on sets, scenarios, and looks from the collection.

The score, composed by Anomaly Spectre, has been created from three main tracks “decomposed in dozens of different versions to follow the generative nature of the piece.”

According to the brand, a “randomly appearing voiceover follows the same principles,” with text generated via ChatGPT to put varied spins on the fable, and then spoken by an AI voice.

The Paris Fashion Week show, which took place within an acoustic chamber at Paris’ Institute for Research and Coordination in Acoustics and Music (IRCAM), was itself soundtracked by the musician u.r.trax with recordings of the noises produced by elements of the collection such as “the crackle of sequin embroidery” and “the metallic sounds of zips and talons (heels in French).” In keeping with the acoustic theme, it also featured 3D-printed CD players in the shape of Coperni’s signature Swipe Bag—complete with headphones. 

While the show itself didn’t feature the Humane AI Pins in action, the brand did showcase their capability via a teaser video posted to their Instagram account of a hand opening to reveal its date and time. Chaudhri previously demonstrated some of the pin’s capabilities in a TED Talk earlier this year (below).

The innovative elements of Coperni’s two previous shows—Spring ’23 involved a dress worn by Bella Hadid being spray painted live on the runway—arguably garnered more attention than the clothes. While the aftershow buzz is largely focused around the Humane AI Pins, the tech didn’t detract attention from the collection itself on the runway.

In addition to the new androgynous jacket silhouette sported by Campbell et al, sculptural ruffles woven from zipped seams on collars, busts, and the necklines of Bardot dresses added a more feminine flourish while staying true to the brand’s DNA.