At the 19th Interfabric‑2026.Spring exhibition, the panel discussion AI Couture: Who Really Owns the Design? was held on a topic of growing importance.

The discussion was led by Olga Gushchina — brand strategist, creative director, visual communications marketer, trend forecaster, multidisciplinary and digital designer, and founder of REPLICO design studio and TRNDlab & BRNDburo.

Once again, Sberbank, Russia’s largest financial institution, is the strategic partner of the event.

"We live in an era of constant change. AI‑powered robots are entering everyday life,” Olga said. “The 2025 word was ‘Sloponomics’ — an economy driven by low‑quality, AI‑generated content. ‘Slop’ means waste or garbage. Sloponomics describes a market flooded with AI‑generated absurd videos, fake news, and low‑quality books."

She noted that while content quality has dropped, its accessibility has grown — and clear rules are needed, otherwise technology may slip out of control.

“Right now, AI is a gray zone. With free accounts, it’s often unclear who owns what you generate. If you don’t pay, the AI owns the images — you don’t. So always check the terms about authorship and commercial use before you start.”

Yulia Mokrousova, TED speaker, visual brand designer, and product designer, explained that in legal practice, screenshots of the entire prompt — what was written, what the AI produced, any edits, date and time — are often required.

She also stressed that using recognisable products or people in AI‑generated content is tricky: images of actors or even cartoon characters cannot be used without permission.

Yulia made another practical point: business content often needs horizontal images and video. This is where AI can lend a hand, too.

“We’re used to shooting vertical, but most video platforms and presentations are horizontal. Designers struggle with this — turning vertical video into horizontal is nearly impossible. It usually costs time and money. With AI, we can now ‘extend’ the vertical frame and even improve image quality.”