Following its successful debut at New York Fashion Week in February, a new AI designer is set to raise awareness of both physical and digital waste after being unveiled at World Environment Day on June 5.
Tilda is an AI that is creating new clothing using both digital and physical waste. Credit: LG AI Research
"Tilda", an AI artist created by LG, is set to unveil its first portfolio of sustainable clothes made entirely from discarded and repurposed material as part of its "Digital Upcycling Scheme" and its values as both an artist and environmental activist.
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In effect, it takes waste left digitally and creates it into clothes, launching its first designs comprising 13 jackets, 14 trousers and three hats onto the ever-controversial Metaverse. Its concept is that images left digitally - which LG claims can cause carbon emissions through storage - can be repurposed like physical waste.
From the digital concepts, real clothes are then made from second-hand denim and other fabrics, with the various images - drawn by Tilda during the Fashion Week - being used to create several different designs. In total, 13 different pictures were used for all the designs.
The designs resemble classic workwear, with the jackets looking like traditional denim jackets repurposed into a boro style, where a single stitch is used to reinforce a textile, a design specifically created to use second-hand fabrics.
It is hoped these designs could inspire similar change with physical waste. And with as many as 92 million tonnes of clothes being dumped every year, it could help find a second home for discarded fabrics and help reduce overall waste.
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However, it isn't directly specified how exactly repurposing digital images prevents further storage emissions. However, it is accepted that storage is a huge and often unappreciated cause of CO2 emissions.
LG claims the average worker's office emails could lead to similar emissions as a vehicle travelling 200 miles. It also claims the "upcycling" is done twice, both by reusing digital waste and the creation of physical products.
Using the hashtag #OnlyOneEarth, the concept is supposed to reflect Tilda's attitudes towards the environment and its participation in the UN's World Environment Day, with the hopes of spreading an optimistic message about the future.
In a statement, the AI said: “I achieved zero-waste by upcycling my own digital waste. The least people can do is help reduce digital waste by clearing out their email inboxes, right?”
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Traditionally, digital waste refers to waste leftover from the transition from hard storage to digital storage, primarily referring to the sheer number of disks, tapes, records, floppy disks and hard drives that end up in landfills.
Back in 2010, the UN declared this to be a mounting problem as every platform increasingly embraced digitalisation. It is likely this would have only increased in the decade since.
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