March 27, 2026
MAN AND ROBOTS: A weekly column from MARS Magazine on AI, Hollywood, and the future of work.
🕶️ AI Fashion Witch Hunt At Prada
1. A new fashion campaign for Prada’s Spring/Summer 2026 line has stirred up some AI controversy. Crafted by artist Jordan Wolfson, the still images and videos feature actors Nicholas Hoult (Superman, Mad Max: Fury Road), Damson Idris (F1: The Movie, Snowfall), Carey Mulligan (Drive, Shame), and Levon Hawke (Marty Supreme), all Prada ambassadors. The images and videos, all featuring large nightmarish birds next to the actors, have drawn criticism from Prada fans on Instagram, YouTube, and X.com for being AI-generated. There’s just one problem: neither the artist nor Prada has openly stated that the works are AI-generated.
Behind the AI Outrage: I think I know why Prada fans are assuming the works are AI. Wolfson is known to use technology in his art installations, so AI wouldn’t be a stretch. Then there’s the language on the Prada campaign page which states, “The artist gives life to nameless, unreal and dreamlike creatures, defined by complex visual codes, which interact with the cast both in photos and videos and make the imagination tangible … [Wolfson] investigates perceptions of the world around us, as well as the way in which technologies and images can define our way of thinking.” Is that a stealthy way of saying he used AI without directly saying it? It’s unclear, but many Prada lovers are nevertheless convinced AI is involved, and they’re not happy about it.
The other thing that may have Prada fans assuming AI is in the mix is the fact that Meta is reportedly working on a pair of Prada smartglasses, which would be AI-enabled. The public was reminded of this last month when Mark Zuckerbergshowed up to a Prada runway show with his wife, Priscilla Chan. What this unconfirmed AI outrage from Prada watchers is telling us is that it may now be necessary for brands to openly state that a visual was not AI-generated if other methods were used. And if AI was used, then consumers clearly want to know about it.
🤖 Grammarly CEO Throws Team Under the AI Bus
2. Grammarly CEO Shishir Mehrotra shocked everyone when he agreed to sit for an interview with The Verge’s Editor-in-Chief Nilay Patel this week. The chat came on the heels of Superhuman’s (Grammarly’s parent company) controversial decision to use journalists’ names for Grammarly edit styles without their permission in a feature called Expert Review. Patel was among the many unauthorized journalists’ names. After the media backlash, the company removed the feature, but for many, it was just the latest example of human work being appropriated by AI without permission or compensation.
What’s In a Name? For Writers, Everything: Oddly, Mehrotra repeatedly referred to the decision to launch the feature as “their” decision, referring to an internal group of engineers, rather than taking responsibility and saying “our” decision regarding the feature. “Maybe we should step back and talk about what inspired this team, and what they were trying to do, and what fell short,” said Mehrotra. “So let’s start with what they were trying to do.”
That’s pretty much how the entire conversation went, despite Patel’s deft lawyerly chops (he has a law degree) and precise framing of questions, which included, “If you use my likeness, how much should you have to pay me?” To that question, Mehrotra circled the issue with a neat word cloud that didn’t really answer the question. When pressed further by Patel, Mehrotra said, “Because it’s a legal case, I can’t really get into details of those types of things.” The lawsuit he’s referring to is a class-action lawsuit led by journalist Julia Angwin.
The other reason the interview is a must-watch is that it distills the central contradiction at the heart of some AI startups, the idea (raised by Patel) of extraction vs. addition. He points out, as many have, that AI has extracted (trained) the sum total of human knowledge work, but the profits from many AI ventures aren’t fundamentally designed to compensate the humans who made the AI models possible. Grammarly’s ill-conceived feature spelled out that dynamic in the clearest terms ever. Angwin is posting updates on the class-action lawsuit here.
🎭 Hulk Smash AI
3. “Some good news.”
–Mark Ruffalo, actor, Avengers: Infinity War, Zodiac, Task, reacting to the news that Disney’s AI video deal with OpenAI was canceled.
🎬 Runway Is Growing AI Commercial Director Stars
4. Undeterred by the recent success of ByteDance’s new Seedance 2.0 AI video model, which started rolling out internationally (except in the U.S.) earlier this week, Runway is launching an AI video contest focused on advertising. To qualify, creators must create a 0:30 – 0:60 advertisement from a list of fictional products (provided by Runway), and the video ad must be made using Runway’s tools. The top prize is $50k, with another $50k spread out over various lower categories. The deadline is April 1, 2026, and you can enter the competition here.
Mad AI Men: The focus on advertising in this contest is interesting, given the New York-based company’s intense focus on the independent film world through its AI Festival and its partnership with movie studio Lionsgate. On the other hand, since Runway is one of the only major AI video startups headquartered in New York City, the heart of the advertising world, it’s surprising Runway hasn’t been even more aggressive in this space earlier.
🔈 Suno AI Music Boss’s Drug-Addled Marketing
5. “I think the majority of people don’t enjoy the majority of the time they spend making music,” Suno co-founder and CEO Mikey Shulman told The Guardian. “When you get people one-on-one, they’re just more comfortable admitting [to using AI for music]. It was described to me that we’re the Ozempic of the music industry – everybody is on it, and nobody wants to talk about it.”
Hazardous to Your Health?: This might be one of the worst AI metaphors I’ve heard yet. Leaving aside the wild part about people not enjoying making music (??), the first thing that popped into my mind reading the Ozempic comparison was the weight loss drug’s side effects. The makers of the drug admit that it may cause thyroid tumors, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, kidney problems, gallbladder problems, changes in vision, and pancreatitis. Oh, and studies show that most people who stop using the drug regain most of their weight, so you basically have to stay on the drug for life. I think if you’re trying to sell AI-generated music, maybe Ozempic is the last thing you want to compare it to. Unless…there are artistic side effects related to producing AI-generated music that Suno isn’t telling us about?
What This Chart Means: The data presented comes from a research study published on March 18, 2026, titled “How LLMs Distort Our Written Language.” As mentioned in The Writer’s Guide to Using AI Responsibly, using Large Language Model (LLM) AI models to write, or even as a writing assistant, can change the meaning and impact of human writing. The chart above details how survey respondents in the study think AI did or did not impact their writing.
Later in the study, the researchers found that “[AI] users wrote essays that were significantly more neutral and avoided taking a definitive stance on the question ‘Does money lead to happiness?’” The research paper was a collaboration between UC Berkeley, UC San Diego, the University of Washington, Zaytuna College, and Google DeepMind and can be read in full here.
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Cover image: Modifed screen capture of Prada’s video ad accused of being AI by fans via (Prada/YouTube)
