In the industrial town of Rupganj outside of Bangladesh’s capital, clothing manufacturer Fakir Fashions is using artificial intelligence (AI) to automatically pause production and avoid waste when something goes wrong in its knitting operations. AI technology has also allowed the fashion supplier, which employs about 10,000 workers, to dismiss dozens of human quality inspectors, said managing director Fakir Kamruzzaman Nahid. Suppliers and brands across the US$1.
7 trillion (approximately RM7.4 trillion) global fashion industry are beginning to use AI technology, such as in cameras and sensors that detect defects, to boost production and to reduce their environmental impact, including by monitoring emissions and water use. The sector is responsible for between 2% to 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change.
It is also one of the world's major polluters of water sources and produces vast amounts of waste that wind up in landfills. While AI could help improve the apparel business' environmental track record, it also poses a threat to some of the 75 million jobs in the labour-intensive industry worldwide, already under pressure from other forms of automation. "We know what is coming on fashion's AI front – and if workers do not get to have a say about how it impacts them, they are at a disadvantage as a class," said Christina Hajagos-Clausen, textile and garment industry director at IndustriALL Global Union, a Geneva-based global federation of unions.
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