Vivian Wilson’s newest co-star is a humanoid robot, and she spends much of their time together finding increasingly strange jobs for it to do.
The 22-year-old model fronts Desigual’s Fall 2026 “Born to Disobey” campaign alongside DESI84, a robotic assistant that struggles once Wilson pushes it beyond its programming. She walks it on a leash, uses it as a golf tee and repeatedly tries to teach it how to pronounce Desigual before ending the film with the line, “Some things aren’t meant to be fixed.”
Wilson’s criticism of artificial intelligence goes beyond the joke. She told PEOPLE that AI is taking work from creative professionals while creating environmental costs, and she argued that AI generated art lacks the human emotion and intention behind creative work.
Her casting has also prompted comparisons with her estranged father, Elon Musk, whose companies include artificial intelligence venture xAI and Tesla, which is developing the Optimus humanoid robot. TMZ interpreted the campaign as a shot at Musk, but Wilson and Desigual have not said DESI84 represents him or Optimus.
Wilson Says AI Is Replacing Creative Workers
Wilson said concerns about employment were among the reasons she wanted to speak about artificial intelligence through the campaign.
“It takes jobs away from talented creatives while being detrimental for the environment,” she told PEOPLE. She was particularly critical of AI generated art, arguing that human emotion is inseparable from the work itself.
“Art is emotion through expression,” Wilson said. “Since emotion is inherently human, AI takes away any underlying intention and replaces it with plagiarized colors and shapes.”
She went further while discussing the campaign with The Impression, warning against allowing artificial intelligence to handle too much everyday thinking. “Stop using AI for everything, you’re going to give yourself a lobotomy,” she said. “Outsourcing all of your critical thinking to AI is the easiest way to lose your individuality and perspective.”
Wilson also raised concerns about data centers, water consumption and the use of algorithms to push misinformation or commercially motivated content. She encouraged people to question why particular material is being shown to them and who benefits from it.
DESI84 Keeps Getting Jobs It Wasn’t Built to Do
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The campaign puts those ideas into a deliberately absurd series of scenes. DESI84 begins as a seemingly capable assistant, but Wilson keeps giving it assignments that have little to do with what a helpful household robot might normally be expected to handle.
She leads the machine around on a leash, positions a golf ball on its body before taking a swing and watches it struggle with sprinklers. DESI84 also repeatedly fails to pronounce “Desigual” correctly before eventually malfunctioning badly enough to bang its head against a wall.
The robot was not actually an autonomous machine. Wilson said a human performer wore a blue suit during filming before the character was completed digitally in post production.
“Oh my goodness no, and I’m so glad,” she said when asked whether she had worked with a real robot. “The technology isn’t quite there yet. It was a guy in a blue suit. We ended up gossiping about pop culture between takes.”
Desigual describes the campaign as a contrast between a machine designed to follow instructions and a person willing to reject them. Its Fall 2026 collection includes a “Born to Disobey” T-shirt alongside denim, bold prints and animal patterned outerwear.
Viewers Quickly Made the Elon Musk Connection
Wilson’s family history made the robot imagery difficult for some viewers to separate from Musk. Tesla has spent years developing Optimus, while Musk also founded xAI, the company behind Grok.
DESI84 has consequently drawn comparisons with Tesla’s humanoid robot, particularly as Wilson subjects it to tasks it repeatedly fails to complete. The campaign itself does not name Tesla, Optimus, Musk or xAI.
The relationship between Wilson and her father has been publicly strained for years. In a 2024 interview with NBC News, Wilson disputed Musk’s claim that he had been tricked into approving documents related to her gender affirming medical care when she was a teenager. She said he knew what he was signing after initially hesitating.
Musk has subsequently continued speaking publicly about their estrangement. Wilson, in turn, has repeatedly challenged his descriptions of her childhood and their relationship rather than relying on indirect references through her fashion work.
Wilson Says Her Father Is Not ‘the Future of My Story’
Wilson has increasingly built a public career separate from the family dispute. She made her runway debut in 2025 and has since appeared in fashion campaigns, magazine shoots and events while speaking publicly about LGBTQ+ rights, politics and her own experiences.
The Desigual work follows campaigns including Savage X Fenty and gives Wilson a lead role built around her own opinions about technology, creativity and individuality. The Spanish brand described her as representing a generation more interested in expressing its identity than fitting into established expectations.
Wilson addressed the continued focus on her father directly in an April interview with Cosmopolitan. Asked about constantly being identified through her connection to Musk, she said there was little she could do about it.
“It’s part of my story, but it’s not the future of my story,” Wilson said.