Vivian Jenna Wilson, the 22-year-old transgender daughter of Elon Musk, stars in a Desigual fall campaign released on Sept. 3, in which she plays with a humanoid robot until it ends up smoking on the floor.
Wilson then used interviews tied to the campaign to criticize AI, saying people her age are being passed over as companies replace workers with the technology. The contrast is hard to miss: her biological father is one of the world’s most prominent backers of AI and humanoid robots.
Desigual’s campaign centers on a household robot called DESI 84
The Spanish fashion brand titled the campaign 「BORN TO DISOBEY,」 with Wilson introduced as its latest face.
In the ad, the robot, named DESI 84, is presented as a household assistant. Wilson uses it as a golf target, sends it out to work as a gardener, walks it on a leash like a dog, and later lies beside it in bed.
The machine repeatedly mispronounces the Desigual brand name while Wilson laughs. By the end of the spot, the robot is motionless on a carpet and smoke is coming from its face covering. Wilson grabs it by the ankle, drags it away, and says, 「Some things aren’t meant to be fixed.」
She later clarified that no real robot was involved. 「Oh my God, of course it wasn’t real, and I’m very glad it wasn’t,」 Wilson said. 「It was a person in a blue bodysuit, and we talked about pop-culture gossip between takes.」
Wilson says AI is taking work from creators and younger people
In comments to WWD, Wilson took direct aim at heavy reliance on AI. 「Stop using AI for everything. You’re going to end up like you had a lobotomy,」 she said.
She added: 「Outsourcing all of your critical thinking to AI is the fastest way to lose your individuality and your point of view.」
Speaking to People, Wilson said she accepted the campaign because AI is 「taking jobs from talented creatives while also being bad for the environment.」 She said young people in her age group are 「constantly being passed over because companies are replacing their jobs with AI.」
She was equally blunt about AI-generated images, saying, 「I think it’s vile. Art is human. It’s sending emotion out through expression.」
The report traces a years-long break with Musk
The article says Wilson was born in Los Angeles in 2004 to writer Justine Musk, Elon Musk’s first wife. After the couple’s first child, Nevada, died at 10 weeks old, they turned to IVF, and Wilson was later born.
Twenty-one years later, Wilson wrote on Threads that the sex assigned to her at birth was 「a commodity that was bought and paid for,」 referring to her parents’ sex selection for a boy.
In 2020, she came out on Instagram as a transgender woman. Under California law, a minor needs a father’s consent to use puberty blockers, and the report says Musk did not support that at first. It adds that she became fully financially independent that year.
In June 2022, after turning 18, Wilson received court approval in California to legally change her name and gender marker. In her filing, she wrote that she no longer wished to be related to Musk 「in any way, shape or form.」
In July 2024, Musk discussed his daughter on Jordan Peterson’s show. According to the report, he said he had been tricked into agreeing to treatment and used a former name she no longer uses. He also said the child had been 「killed by the woke mind virus.」
Wilson did not offer an extended response, but said the childhood stories her father told were 「entirely fake」 and called him a 「pathetic man-child.」
She later turned Musk’s phrase into merchandise
On March 26, 2026, Wilson put the phrase 「woke mind virus」 on merchandise including T-shirts, hoodies, baseball caps, tote bags, pet bowls, and pet clothing. Part of the proceeds go to The Trevor Project, an LGBTQ youth suicide prevention organization.
The report also cites 2026 industry survey figures on creative work: 26% of illustrators have lost jobs because of machines, one-third have seen income fall, and graphic design openings are down 17% over a year. One forecast cited in the piece says about 20.7% of jobs in design, writing, and marketing could be eliminated or fundamentally reorganized by 2030.