They can start the day with a photo session in New York; at noon succeed on the Milan catwalk; in the afternoon he opened up on a TikTok live with his fans from his apartment in Barcelona. And they don't get tired, they don't get sick, they don't complain, they have the gift of ubiquity, they are always impeccable and delighted to interact with millions of followers. They have time for everyone, if you want – and pay – in private.
Their appearance is perfect, they are attractive, they always meet expectations and go out of their way to generate desire. They can have clones and work piecework. They are also references for their followers, who idealize a perfection that does not exist. Succulent and controversial business.
Their appearance is surprisingly real, but they are girls generated by artificial intelligence (AI). They almost never play tricks: their creators (owners) present them as AI models and influencers.
The desire and admiration they generate is real, and their success is based on that.
“We are willing to let ourselves be seduced because it is satisfying. There is a contradiction between common sense and desire,” reflects Francesc Núñez (UOC), expert in sociology and communication. “It doesn't matter if you know they are fake; the models have the capacity to generate emotions and the emotions are real,” he adds.
It's also true the surprising popularity of new AI models. The level of acceptance, especially among young people, is high.
“There has always been, especially among young people, the need to admire idols. And with the explosion of social networks and influencers it intensifies. It is a model of perfection to follow and imitate,” reasons Enrique San Juan, director of Community Internet, expert in AI, digital marketing and social networks.
Several of the models, until now almost all women, young and very attractive, have managed to become successful influencers in a short time. They are already the advertising image of important brands. This is the case of Aitana from Barcelona, a twenty-five-year-old fan of video games and fitness. A dream for some, an archetype that has a market.
It is the work of a young Catalan advertising agency (The Clueless) and has 274,000 followers on Instagram. It was born out of nowhere a few months ago, in the office of an advertising agency that was going through a difficult time. Many of their small clients could not afford the high costs of campaigns with real models.
It is too early to say whether or not it will be able to transform the fashion and advertising industry. If AI will partially displace real models and influencers.
“I want to have Monica Bellucci but I can't afford her. Now you can have the model you want and you only have to worry about the color of her eyes,” explains Rubén Cruz, one of the founding partners of Aitana's agency.
They are overwhelmed by the avalanche of requests and proposals. “She has gotten out of hand. At first we just wanted to create an influencer. You think about what people like, it's like playing to create an avatar in a video game, you change things,” she adds. From physical appearance, like the pink color of her hair, key, to hobbies. To the letter.
The phenomenon, in an initial phase, opens the debate in parallel. Multiple perspectives: ethics, education or psychology. “If you compare these models with reality, reality will always be disappointing,” says Núñez (UOC). More pressure and frustration for young people?
“Until now, whether it was an actress or an influencer, the lighthouse and the mirror were real people,” says San Juan. “With artificial intelligence we move to another psychological universe: it deceives the brain, which perceives it as real. “It is a perfect pattern that is neither a person nor a character,” he adds.
AI models almost always respond to well-thought-out archetypes. Success is based on knowing how to connect with different audiences, well segmented, based on stereotypes.
It happens with many of the real models, turned into influencers and a demand for brands to sell more through their connection with different audiences. And stereotypes are also repeated.
“We have analyzed which Spanish influencers were on the rise. Aitana looks like these girls. They criticize us because we comply with aesthetic canons that are ideal; “We want to look like the competition,” explains Cruz.
The vein has opened, brands have been encouraged to try AI models. The results are being good and the phenomenon seems to have a path that is partly uncertain, as is the case with most of the fields in which artificial intelligence breaks out.
As often happens with AI, there is controversy on social networks, its natural growth ecosystem. Aitana said on Instagram that she was about to fly to Madrid and asked for advice: “what to do apart from savoring the culture, art, history and calamari sandwich.” One of her followers responded: “You're not going anywhere or eating anything. You should be reported for a fake account.”
“People want reality, someone you would like to see on the street but will never see,” explains Cruz (The Clueless). In the description of her profile, Aitana's creators have made it clear that she has been generated by AI. They don't deceive, although they do mislead.
“It will be increasingly difficult to distinguish fiction from real images; The algorithms continue to learn,” warns Roger Guimerà (URV), a leading computer scientist and specialist in AI. “Technologies are not neutral, we must have this debate. And it is important that they are under democratic control, they are now in the hands of companies and there is potential to do harm on many levels. ChatGPT, for example, is sexist because it has been trained with sexist texts,” he warns.
AI models inherit stereotypes of beauty and success: they are Western, young and thin.
“We played the game of generating a debate: whether Aitana was real or not. Is it a real woman's body? Is it the face of a model? Aitana, like all our models, is made from scratch, she does not exist. Aitana is marketing.”
