Sacré bleu! Gender-bending football from French telecomms

Whether or not you're a footie fan, this ad for the Women's World Cup is interesting at different levels. It's being hailed by many - whether there's a gender preponderance in either direction, we don't know - as brilliant for its championing of women's equality in the beautiful game. Some voices are piping up to express concerns over the onslaught on our senses (e.g. 'I'll believe it when I see it') as artificial intelligence (AI) pursues its relentless gallop through reality. The telecomms company behind this ad campaign, Orange in France, has for years been developing computer vision and other AI techniques as part of a general trend which is ethically unregulated and therefore open to mis-application. Orange has been using large-scale image recognition - achievable only by machines - to reduce malfunctions and test compliance in fibre optics installations, for example. "These images have a triple objective: to monitor, to intervene as quickly as possible in the event of a problem and to penalize the operators found at fault," says Orange. Hm. Such techniques can also be used for facial recognition or speed-scanning of texts among fans at matches, ostensibly to avoid trouble before it arises. The Orange ad was itself created by an 'agency' which is an AI platform designed to meld human creatives with technology. Enjoy the championship, anyway!

Keywords: Orange France Women's World Cup 2023, VFX in ads, artificial intelligence in advertising, AI and commercials, women's football, Marcel agency