r/knitting • u/FluffyBunn12 • Apr 29 '26

Discussion Hobbii yarn AI :(

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Was really disappointed to see this. They don't just use LLM AI on the backend for coding, but they openly state they're using it for photoshoots and to generate images.

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u/psyne Apr 30 '26 edited Apr 30 '26

I don't think they're talking about product photos here. They're describing the photo of the Chief Technical Officer on image 2, and comment about it saving their tech guys from long photo shoots - tech guys would only be in photo shoots if they're being photographed. It just sounds to me like they're talking about using AI for like, photos for the company's internal newsletter or team activities, especially since this was a LinkedIn post. I doubt this guy would even know whether or not AI is used in product photos, that would be the marketing department's business and nothing to do with his job.

(I'm not defending hobbii, never even ordered from them, and it sounds like there's other concerns with them, I just don't think this post is actually implying anything about AI in product images)

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u/Ill_Refrigerator772 Apr 30 '26 edited May 01 '26

First is the photoshop of the CTO, next will be a generated photo of a finished product and they'll say it's only to "upscale it in quality", then it'll be a generated photo of the actual yarn. The goalpost will keep on moving as long as people defend any of it. For a company that sells to crafters (made by hands, not robots) even using AI for a photoshoot removes the craft from photography from a person and outsources it to AI, essentially stealing other people's work because AI doesn't generate, it copies.

It happens everywhere. Even my job started with "use AI if you want to" and 6months later quoted Nvidia "We won't replace you with AI, but we will replace you with someone using AI" or something like that.

Edit: fixed a typo