Even just the concept of an AI startup [as what that means now in the age of LLMs] is already epochs worse than anything 90s douches could dream up. But sure, paying models always helps if you're nihilistic enough to use people as props.
Not to take away agency from people who choose to model, but you're saying their entire job is basically just being used anyway so fuckit?
[edit] I wasn't saying I feel specifically bad for the models in this scenario, just for society at large, average kids who are set up to believe that fake humans and fake influencers are living the lives they want so desperately.
Not to put too fine a point on it: we're all being used anyway, the big difference is the pay grade but other than that I really don't see the difference between one profession where you sell your body for $x / hour or another.
Of course we all tell ourselves that we're different/better/smarter based on the rate difference without noticing it is the exact same game and that the people on the paymaster side are the same as well.
I strongly disagree that we're all being used, let alone in the same way that models are used. For one thing, there's skilled work and unskilled work. There's pride in skill, and dignity in work. Then there are people who actually create things, with money being a secondary objective that happens automatically. Do you think construction workers or carpenters consider their use of their time and bodies more or less useful than models? Are they used in the same way? What is the general purpose of a model other than to obfuscate a sales pitch? Do sculptors or painters think they're just as used, physically, as fast food workers? I hope not.
And then, aside from those who create and those who make things sits the marketing apparatus. The rent seekers and extractors and MBAs. You might consider them the paymaster side, but I just view them as unnecessary parasites. We don't all work for them... and when we do, some of us come to unique arrangements that maintain our creative control and our dignity.
By this logic, musicians are "used" as machines to play music, cooks as machines to churn out dishes, and bus drivers just allow to use themselves as vehicle guidance computers.
Hello, this is called "work". If you think that looking impeccably good and appropriate takes no effort or no intellect, look at a mirror, and try that.