The announcement of Alba Renai as one of the presenters of a large television format, Survivors, has raised blisters. Alba Renai, a 24-year-old from Madrid who likes to travel, eat and practice yoga, according to her Instagram profile, which has 11,800 followers, is not real, but has been generated and trained by Artificial Intelligence (AI). Nor do there exist the spectacular models that have starred in the last campaign for Llongueras, nor that of the latest BMW spot. The Spanish industry of influencers generated by AI is beginning to emerge. But who are they? what rates do they have? What companies are behind these creations and what ethical dilemmas do they raise?
Virtual presenters, models and influencers have existed for years. They have collaborated with different artists from the music and fashion sectors and have experienced an approximation to real life in video games such as The Sims. But they are becoming more realistic and attractive. Lil Miquela, in 2016, was the first virtual influencer to occupy a prominent place and carry out advertising campaigns with prestigious brands such as BMW, Calvin Klein or Prada. Lil Miquela was created by a Los Angeles company and backed with money from Silicon Valley.
Almost a decade later, the production processes for these creations have been reduced and localized, while also becoming more realistic. Behind Alba Renai, the presenter of Supervivientes, is the creative agency Be a Lion, a subsidiary of Mediaset España. The parents of the models in the latest Llongueras campaign, including Aitana López, the exuberant Barcelonan with pink hair, born in Barcelona in 98, a lover of fitness, video games and healthy food, are Diana Núñez and Rubén Cruz, founders. from the first Spanish AI modeling agency, The Clueless, located in Barcelona.
Núñez and Cruz, both with design studies, founded a communications agency, Benana, a few years ago, which did not end up working. The small companies that hired them could not afford the high budgets presented by the agency, which for a shooting needed to have different professional profiles, from makeup artists to models, including wardrobe, location and transportation.
So they decided to embark on the design and creation of a virtual model with tools available to anyone, such as Stable Diffusion, Midjourney or Chat GPT. This is how Aitana, the first Spanish AI influencer, was born. “Now instead of two people there are seven of us and we have hired two computer programmers to create our models with our own technology,” explains Cruz, co-founder of The Clueless. “Next month we will launch 30 new creations that are committed to diversity of sex, gender, age, race, functional abilities, etc.” he adds.
One of the biggest advantages of AI-generated influencers, according to their creators, is the interaction with the audience. “Virtual influencers have triple the engagement than real ones,” says the director of branded content and experience at the Be a Lion agency Luís Movilla. “Although she does not have a very high number of followers, about 27,000 in total if you add the TikTok and Instagram communities, the interactions that Alba Renai generates are higher than those of an influencer with 300,000 followers. We don't really know why, but its content is engaging,” adds Movilla. “The economy of influencers generated by AI moves about 4.6 billion dollars and foresees a growth of 26% in 2025,” he concludes.
“Aitana López's sources of income come from three sources: collaborations with brands, content on OnlyFans and conversations on Telegram,” explains Cruz. Talking to Aitana on Telegram costs 9.99 euros per month. Subscribing to his Fanvue channel – a channel similar to OnlyFans –, where users can receive his images and listen to his audios, costs 7.50 euros per month, so a good part of his income comes from his hypersexualized image. It is unknown which brands Aitana has collaborated with, beyond Llongueras, and what rates she has. Cruz admits that she has tagged companies in Aitana's messages to attract the attention of the brands, despite there being no real collaboration between them, as revealed by the information portal Newtral.
One of the most widespread criticisms of virtual influencers is that they promote beauty ideals that are impossible to achieve. “We have not invented anything,” explains Cruz. “The influencers with the most followers are beautiful women. We were inspired by Jessica Goicoechea. We wanted to make a model that all brands would want to work with. At the beginning we created two, one was Aitana, whose physique is very normative, and the other had a more inclusive aesthetic. In the end, we discarded the second one because it didn't work for us, but now we are going to make a strong commitment to diversity,” she adds in reference to the new 30 models that will be released next month. “In addition, we have created an anime avatar of Aitana for the content we offer on OnlyFans so as not to damage her reputation.”
Alba Renai's image is born from an exhaustive study of her target audience, Spaniards between 18 and 24 years old, and questionnaires to hundreds of young people to define their physical features and values. “It was the public who created it,” says Movilla, who also explains that from the beginning they have worked with the University of Malaga to develop a code of conduct for it with the aim that there would be no discrimination based on sex, race, age. , etc. and that she was in tune with the values of her generation. “We have been approached by unrelated brands and we have declined collaborations,” she adds.
“This is a social problem amplified by technology,” says algorithmic ethics expert Patrícia Ventura. “Technology reproduces the sexist biases that exist in society because it is trained with existing data and images. Without control, technology reproduces and increases stereotypes. The very concept of an influencer is the problem, because an influencer exerts influence on the most vulnerable people,” she adds.
Another criticism that virtual influencers receive is about the confusion derived from some users who may think that they are interacting or seeing a real person when in reality it is an AI. In this sense, the Artificial Intelligence law approved by the European Parliament in mid-March obliges companies that use them to specify that they are simulations, virtual influencers. In both the profiles of Aitana López and those of Alba Renai there is this clarification in their profile, but what happens when their images or videos circulate without context on social media channels?
“It should be specified in absolutely all content, in accordance with article 52 of the EU AI law. And it should also be indicated which companies are behind these virtual influencers. This is what the law states,” explains Ventura. “However, the underlying problem is the anthropomorphization of technology, that is, giving human form to these creations generated by AI. This fosters fear of technology and the narrative that it is smarter than humans and will one day replace us. Technology is designed by people and should serve to make our lives better and more dignified,” she adds.
Hiperia is RTVE's first virtual presenter, but his appearance, at the beginning of 2023, did not generate any type of controversy, unlike what happened with Alba Renai. The character, voice and script of this public radio and television program are generated by AI and its main objective is to explore new narratives and formats. “Hiperia is not hyperrealistic so as not to generate internal or external rejection, even though technology would allow us to do so. We do not want it to be seen as a substitute for any RTVE professional, and we do not want to get into controversies, which is why it does not deal with political information, for example, but rather it dedicates itself to things that interest everyone, such as culture," explains the director. of Innovation of RTVE, David Corral. Hiperia also does not have social media accounts.
Virtual influencers have an advantage for the companies that use them: they do not need to rest, which has generated the rejection of many professionals towards these emerging figures. Xinhua, the Chinese government's media outlet, introduced the first virtual news anchor in 2018. Greek public television did it last year. From Asia to Europe, AI presenters are now breaking the news. They are attractive, ageless and work 24 hours a day, seven days a week, without receiving any salary. Should we be worried?
“Alba has not come to take away anyone's job, but has been created ad hoc to see how citizens perceived a presenter generated by AI and a format has been created for her,” explains Movilla. “There are 32 people who work at Alba, from community managers to scriptwriters, through more technical profiles such as prompt engineers. In total, four new jobs have been created and around twenty professionals have been trained,” she adds.
The coexistence between AI and real influencers is already a fact. No dramas, no substitutions, for the moment. “There are people who enter Alba's universe and others who do not. We always explain that Alba is an AI, we are not fooling anyone. Even she herself knows it and that is her biggest regret. Human talent is irreplaceable,” explains Movilla. “I think that, for now, real models and AI are going to coexist perfectly,” says Cruz. “However, I also believe that AIs are going to gain more and more ground: not in terms of content creators or runway models, but in photography models,” she concludes.
And in some ways, virtual influencers aren't all that far removed from their real-life predecessors: It's no secret that humans who promote brands on social media often project a version of daily life that's brighter and brighter. happy than the real one.
