Milan's Design World Sounds the Alarm on AI-Generated Duplicate Images: What Officials, Experts and Key Figures Are Saying

A growing chorus of architects, brand directors and digital-rights specialists is pushing Milan's creative industry to act on a problem that has been building for months: the mass circulation of duplicate and AI-generated images that copy, composite or wholesale replicate original design photography, eroding both brand value and legal ownership. The issue has now moved from private grumbling in Zona Tortona studios to formal discussion at institutional level.

The timing is not coincidental. Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics preparations have accelerated an unprecedented wave of promotional photography and commercial image production across the city since early spring, flooding stock platforms and social media with thousands of new assets. That volume, combined with increasingly capable generative AI tools, has created fertile ground for image duplication at scale — a dynamic that design lawyers and platform specialists say they have not seen before at this intensity.

Who Is Talking, and What They Are Saying

Politecnico di Milano, whose design faculty on Via Ampère has long served as the city's intellectual nerve centre for creative industries, has been among the first institutions to address the question formally. Faculty researchers there have been studying how generative AI systems reproduce protected design photography without triggering conventional copyright detection, a process that exploits gaps in Italian law dating to the 2001 European Copyright Directive's implementation. No specific findings have been published yet, but the department confirmed earlier this year that a working group on AI and visual rights is active.

The Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana, which represents the country's fashion houses and coordinates with major brands headquartered in the Quadrilatero della Moda, has acknowledged the issue in internal communications circulated to member companies this spring, according to industry sources with direct knowledge of those discussions — though the organisation has not issued a public statement. Smaller design studios operating out of Porta Venezia and along Corso Como have been more vocal, with several posting policy statements to their websites warning clients that AI-scraped duplicates of campaign imagery have appeared on third-party marketplaces without authorisation.

Digital-rights lawyer Francesca Cattaneo, who works with creative firms in Milan and has spoken at events organised by Assografici, the Italian graphic arts federation, has argued publicly that Italy's existing framework under Legislative Decree 68/2003 is inadequate to handle automated duplication. Her position, stated at an Assografici seminar held in April, is that the burden of proof currently falls too heavily on the original creator rather than on platforms hosting infringing content.

What the Numbers Suggest — and What Comes Next

The scale of the problem is difficult to quantify precisely, but data from the European Union Intellectual Property Office's 2025 annual report — covering all 27 member states — found that image-based intellectual property infringements had risen by 34 percent year-on-year, with fashion and design sectors accounting for a disproportionate share. Italy ranked among the top three countries by reported volume of design-related visual IP disputes. Those figures predate the current surge in AI image generation tools, which became significantly more capable in late 2025.

Locally, Fondazione Triennale di Milano, the cultural institution on Viale Alemagna in Parco Sempione, is understood to be developing revised digital-use guidelines for imagery connected to its exhibitions — a practical step that other institutions are watching. The guidelines are expected before the autumn 2026 programming cycle begins.

For designers and studios navigating this environment now, IP specialists recommend three immediate steps: registering original images with timestamped metadata through certified services before publication, filing takedown notices under Article 17 of the EU Digital Services Act where applicable, and building contractual language around AI-generated derivatives into new client agreements. The Ordine degli Architetti di Milano has signalled it will address the subject at its next continuing education programme, scheduled for September at its Via Solferino offices. That will be a practical test of whether the city's professional establishment can move beyond concern and into coordinated action.