The Fine Print Hiding in Your Next Brand Deal. Meet the AI Likeness Clause

What just happened

What Reuters found in fashion contracts

On October 27, 2026, Reuters published an investigation based on interviews with 15 model-agency directors and a review of more than a dozen confidential, unsigned photo-shoot contracts. A few examples it reported:

• Diesel asked for AI changes to faces and body proportions, face swaps, and putting a model’s face on another body. Parent company OTB said the release was for one campaign and is not typical.
• Reale Actives, a skincare brand, asked for the right to create AI replicas and use them for a year without further pay. The brand said it has not replicated anyone and the wording came from a production partner.
• Calvin Klein asked, in a draft contract and with no extra pay, to use images of a model with identifying features such as the face removed to train and fine-tune AI tools. A spokesperson said the brand is testing and learning.
• L’Oréal asked for AI rights covering retouching and product shades. It said its tools do not change the model’s image.

Why now? Money. Reuters reported that AI imagery can cut production costs by 90% or more compared with a shoot with human models, and Zalando closed both of its Berlin photo studios last year.

Plain English

What is an AI likeness clause?

An AI likeness clause is the part of a contract, usually inside the photo or video release, that says what a company may do with your face, body, voice or images using AI. Most ask for one or more of these:

These are very different requests. A replica that appears in new ads for a year is closer to licensing a version of you. One entertainment lawyer, Melanie Howard of Loeb & Loeb, told Reuters that sweeping wording is “dangerous in its ambiguity.”

The law is uneven. Reuters noted one exception: since June 2025, New York’s Fashion Workers Act has made it illegal for brands to create or modify replicas of models without explicit consent. The head of a British model agents’ group told Reuters there is no binding regulation in Britain or Europe.

The real tension

Why brands want AI likeness rights, and why creators worry

The case for the clause. Brands adapt content for dozens of formats, and modern editing tools use AI. A clear clause protects both sides by naming what is allowed, and some creators want paid replica work. A November 2025 survey from creator agency Billion Dollar Boy, as reported by Roastbrief, found 85% of 1,000 U.S. and UK creators were open to creating a digital twin in partnership with a brand.

The case against signing it as written. A replica can work while you don’t, which can shrink future bookings. The same Billion Dollar Boy survey found 62% of creators worry that virtual influencers are increasing competition for work. And when the clause comes with no extra pay, the brand gets lasting value from a single shoot.

Both can be true. A digital version of you is a real creative tool when you control it, which is the idea behind an AI twin. A contract decides who holds the controls.

Your takeaway

How to read an AI likeness clause before you sign

1. Find it. Search for “AI,” “digital,” “replica,” “synthetic,” “likeness,” “alter” and “train.”
2. Name the use. Sort each permission into editing, swapping, replicas or training. Strike what you did not agree to.
3. Check the clock and the map. How long, where, and in what content? “In perpetuity, worldwide, in all media” is the widest answer.
4. Ask for approval rights. You see and approve any new content made with your replica before it runs.
5. Price the replica separately. A digital version of you is its own license, with its own fee and end date.
6. Get deletion in writing. When the term ends, the replica and training copies are deleted, and you are told.
7. Require a label. Honest use means consent and telling people it’s AI.

I am a [model / creator / speaker] reviewing a contract.
Below is the section about images, likeness and AI.
Do not give legal advice. Instead:

1. Quote every sentence that mentions AI, digital
   replicas, face or body changes, synthetic media,
   or training.
2. Explain in plain English what each one allows,
   for how long, and where.
3. Flag anything with no end date, no approval
   step, or no separate payment.
4. Write five polite questions to narrow it.

Contract section:
[paste the clause here, with names and fees removed]

Treat the summary as a starting point and confirm it with your agent, union or a lawyer before you sign. To own your digital version outright, build it with Pixel Pinkscape Avatar Studios and the AI Twin Pinkprint. To guard against fakes, read how to protect your likeness from AI.

Free resources

Free resources for creators and AI likeness

• Do you have to disclose AI content? — our free guide to AI labels.
• The Pixel Pinkscape Dreamers community — a free Facebook group to compare AI terms in brand deals.
• The Pixel Pinkscape YouTube channel — free videos on building and using an AI twin honestly.
• The Pixel Pinkscape newsletter — free, on the blog page.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions