How did you get into AI?
In 2019, after leaving my modelling career in China, which I started three years earlier, I founded my own agency, Flamemgmt. The first year wasn’t easy: I had to convince models to join the agency as no one famous worked there yet. I spent six months handing out business cards to models on the street. I cultivated new faces, created a book, and established contracts, but then the pandemic hit. Two years later, the industry began to recover. I even found myself riding a wave of success: one of my agency’s models was a popular blogger with an audience of 3.5 million followers on social media. However, by that point, I was already feeling burnout and facing personal challenges, which forced me to switch to remote work. While searching for new avenues of development, I turned my attention to the nascent field of artificial intelligence, specifically early versions of ChatGPT. I became fascinated by this field and began learning programming, using AI as a tool, although initially I had no idea how to code. Today, I’m confident in my abilities and am capable of implementing any programming idea, regardless of direction or language.
Do you think AI will replace modelling?
It already is, and the longer it continues, the worse it will become for modelling. 2026 is the last year of a modelling career. I look at groups where people “want to be a model” and quietly laugh to myself, realising that this is no longer relevant.
What are the pros and cons of AI?
For me, as someone who runs my own AI service, there are no cons. Regardless of this, I still wouldn’t say that there are any cons in AI-related fields. It is just a new technology. I believe the world is constantly changing, and we must adapt to reality, whether we like it or not. Progress is unstoppable.
What are your predictions for modelling in general?
Only those brands that want their ideas to be brought to life will endure. However, they will be in the minority. The market will undergo radical changes, even the slightest deviation reverberates globally. A decrease in demand for models is a chain reaction: fewer clients – less income – fewer vacancies – the inability to hire everyone who wants to work – a reduction in the number of mother agnecies – and so on. Businesses love to save money. Basic modelling today involves certain costs: castings, finding and paying a photographer, model, makeup artist… Developing a concept, studio rental, clothing delivery. And that’s just for the simplest cyclorama! More sophisticated projects require significantly more investment and a team of specialists. Now imagine: artificial intelligence is already capable of producing results that are many times more beautiful, many times faster, and many times cheaper. Once business realises this magic, the era of models will be a thing of the past.
