They may start the day at a photo shoot in New York; at noon triumph on the catwalk of Milan; in the afternoon to be honest in a live TikTok with 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, and if you want – and pay – also in private.
Their appearance is perfect, they are attractive, they always respond to the expectations created and deviate to generate desire. They can have clones and work for a fixed price. They are also references for the followers, who idealize a perfection that does not exist. Juicy and controversial business.
Their appearance is strikingly real, but they are girls generated by artificial intelligence (AI). They almost never play tricks: the creators (masters) present them as AI models and influencers.
The desire and admiration they generate is indeed real, and this is where their success is based.
"We are willing to let ourselves be seduced because it satisfies us. There is a contradiction between common sense and desire", reflects Francesc Núñez (UOC), expert in sociology and communication. “It's the same as knowing they're fake; the models have the capacity to generate emotions and the emotions are real", he adds.
The surprising popularity of new AI models is also real. The level of acceptance, especially among young people, is high.
"There has always been, especially among the young audience, the need to admire idols. And with the explosion of social networks and influencers, it intensifies. It is a model of perfection that you want to follow and imitate", says Enrique San Juan, director of Community Internet, expert in AI, digital marketing and social networks.
Some of the models, so far 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 twenty-five-year-old Aitana from Barcelona, a 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 complicated time. Many of their smaller 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 partly displace flesh-and-blood 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 the Aitana agency.
They are bewildered by the flood of requests and proposals. "It has gotten out of hand. At first we just wanted to generate an influencer. You think about what people like, it's like playing to create an avatar in a video game, you change things", he adds. From the physical appearance, like the pink color of the hair, key, to the hobbies. Everything a la carte.
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 Francesc Núñez (UOC). More pressure and frustration for young people?
"Until now, even if it was an actress or an influencer, the beacon 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, established on the basis of stereotypes.
It happens with many real models, turned into influencers and brands claim to sell more through their connection with different audiences. And the stereotypes are also repeated.
"We analyzed which Spanish influencers were booming. Aitana looks like these girls. We are criticized because we comply with aesthetic canons that are ideal; we want to resemble the competition", explains Cruz.
With the vein open, brands have been encouraged to test AI models. The results are good and the phenomenon seems to have a course, partly uncertain, as it happens with most fields in which artificial intelligence breaks through.
As is also often the case with AI, there is controversy in social media, its natural growth ecosystem. Aitana said on Instagram that she was about to fly to Madrid and asked for advice: "What can I do apart from savoring the culture, art, history and squid sandwich". One of his followers replied: "You're not going anywhere and you're not going to eat anything. You should be reported for fake account”.
"People want reality, someone you'd like to see on the street, but you'll never see," explains Cruz (The Clueless). In the description of her profile, the creators of Aitana have made it clear that she has been generated by AI. They are not fooling anyone, although they are playing tricks.
“It will be increasingly difficult to distinguish fiction from real images; the algorithms continue to learn", warns Roger Guimerà (URV), IT specialist referring to 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 a potential to do harm on many levels. The 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 almost always Western, young and thin.
"We played the game of generating a debate: whether Aitana was for real or not. Is it a real woman's body? Is it the face of a model? The Aitana, like all our models, is made from scratch, it does not exist. Aitana is marketing".
