Tyra Banks' ice cream brand appears to have removed at least four promotional images featuring fake models generated using AI.
The 52-year-old star's SMiZE and DREAM brand has come under fire for using AI models in its Instagram posts, while the model's representative insisted while she is focused on "championing talent", artificial intelligence is "changing every industry".
In a statement to Entertainment Weekly, who had raised the issue of the posts, Tyra's rep said: "Models, creators, and businesses are all navigating that reality.
"Ms. Banks has spent her career championing talent, creating opportunities, and hiring models around the world including for SMiZE and DREAM in Australia.
"That commitment to people and the industry has not changed.
"In fact, as Ms. Banks prepares to celebrate the one-year anniversary of her Sydney flagship ice cream shop at Darling Harbour, they will once again be working with models as part of that celebration."
Tyra's rep argued that the use of AI "does not diminish" real creativity, while they insisted the model herself is on the side of humanity rather than machine.
They added: "Using AI as a tool does not diminish the value of human creativity.
"It reflects the reality that every industry is adapting to new technology, and fashion is no different.
"When it comes to creativity, personality, presence, and the ability to truly connect with people, Ms. Banks would still bet on the humans."
Four images in total have been taken down from the brand's account over the last week.
The Model Alliance, which is a non-profit advocating for workers' rights in the fashion industry, has said that generative AI is used to "take advantage of existing power inequities and grey areas within the fashion industry, enabling fashion brands and others to more intensely exploit models’ labour".
On their website, the organisation said: "AI may be reinforcing and accelerating harmful beauty standards, particularly along gendered and racial lines — potentially reversing progress that has been made in recent years."
They added: "AI technologies heighten models’ vulnerability to non-consensual uses of their images that many experienced as violations."
Meanwhile, Tyra recently accused Netflix of defamation in a new lawsuit over their docuseries Reality Check: Inside America's Next Top Model.
Court documents obtained by People magazine stated: "Tyra Banks participated in the Netflix documentary series America's Next Top Model ('ANTM') because she believed viewers deserved a candid conversation about the show's legacy – its successes and its shortcomings.
"There are aspects of the show for which Ms. Banks takes accountability and she wanted ANTM viewers to hear that from her directly.
"Going into her interview, Ms. Banks did not limit the ANTM topics the interviewer could ask…
"The Netflix series Reality Check: Inside America's Next Top Model (the 'Netflix Series') was sold to viewers as a 'documentary series'.
"Netflix called it 'the definitive, must-watch chronicle of America's Next Top Model.' The genre matters. Viewers of a documentary do not expect manufactured drama or constructed narratives. They expect facts. Because they were promised a documentary, that is exactly how viewers interacted with the Netflix Series."
Tyra – who wants a jury to determine the "appropriate" amount she should receive in damages – claimed the accountability she took for some of America's Next Top Model's most controversial moments were edited out.
Because of what Tyra feels was a "false and defamatory" portrayal of her on the docuseries, she is suing for "damages, including loss of future business opportunities, loss of business income, other compounding losses as will be shown at trial".
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