Artificial intelligence used to steal people’s likeness for unauthorized commercial production should be a dystopic comic or TV series episode. But in the year 2026, it’s a common crime with negligible legal repercussions.
TikTok model vanellimelli030, or simply Mel, posted a video about a fashion company stealing her likeness to create a full, AI-generated video advertisement without her consent. Mel claims that a friend sent the video to her, which she says felt “very, very familiar.”
