Meet the first Spanish AI model earning up to €10,000 per month

Aitana, the first Spanish model created by artificial intelligence, was born in the middle of a difficult period.

Last summer, Rubén Cruz, her designer and founder of the agency The Clueless, was going through a rough patch because he didn’t have many clients.

“We started analysing how we were working and realised that many projects were being put on hold or cancelled due to problems beyond our control. Often it was the fault of the influencer or model and not due to design issues,” Cruz told Euronews.

So they decided to create their own influencer to use as a model for the brands that approached them.

They created Aitana, an exuberant 25-year-old pink-haired girl from Barcelona whose physical appearance is close to perfection. The virtual model can earn up to € 10,000 a month, according to her creator, but the average is around € 3,000.

“We did it so that we could make a better living and not be dependent on other people who have egos, who have manias, or who just want to make a lot of money by posing,” says Cruz.

meet the first spanish ai model earning up to €10,000 per month

Designers working on Aitana’s images at the agency. The Clueless Agency

Aitana’s income is quite scattered.

She earns just over € 1,000 per advert, and has recently become the face of Big, a sports supplement company, and as if that weren’t enough, she uploads photos of herself in lingerie to Fanvue, a platform similar to OnlyFans.

In just a few months, she has managed to gain more than 121,000 followers on Instagram and her photos get thousands of views and reactions. She even receives private messages from celebrities who are unaware that she is not an actual person.

“One day, a well-known Latin American actor texted to ask her out. This actor has about 5 million followers and some of our team watched his TV series when they were kids,” says Cruz.

“He had no idea Aitana didn’t exist,” he adds.

meet the first spanish ai model earning up to €10,000 per month

Rubén Cruz and Diana Núñez, Aitana’s designers, with Sofía Novales, Social Media Manager. The Clueless Agency

How do you bring an AI to life?

Every week the agency team has a meeting to create Aitana’s life. They decide what she will do during the week, which places she will visit and which photos will be uploaded to feed the followers who want to know about her.

But there are no photo shoots, no wardrobe changes, just a mix of artificial intelligence and design experts who use Photoshop to make it possible for the model to spend the weekend in Madrid, for example.

“In the first month, we realised that people follow lives, not images. Since she is not alive, we had to give her a bit of reality so that people could relate to her in some way. We had to tell a story,” says the graphic designer.

That’s why Aitana, unlike traditional models whose personalities are usually not revealed so that they can be a ‘blank canvas’ for designers, has a very distinct ‘personality’.

She was created as a fitness enthusiast, determined and with a complex character. On her website she defines herself as outgoing and caring.

“A lot of thought has gone into Aitana. We created her based on what society likes most. We thought about the tastes, hobbies and niches that have been trending in recent years,” explains Cruz.

After analysing trends, they realised that oriental culture had become very Europeanised in recent years, so they tried to capture this in her pink hair and gamer side.

Aitana has been such a success that her designers have already created a second virtual model called Maia, “a little more shy”. The names were not chosen at random either, both contain the acronym for artificial intelligence (AI).

meet the first spanish ai model earning up to €10,000 per month

Social media images of Aitana Euronews

Democratising the use of models?

The agency has been inundated with requests from brands wanting their own personalised model.

“They want to have an image that is not a real person and that represents their brand values, so that there are no continuity problems if they have to fire someone or can no longer count on them,” says Cruz.

There are also cost savings. When the agency, which used to work with real influencers, realised what they were earning, they found it “anomalous”.

“Kim Kardashian makes a million euros for an Instagram photo and she doesn’t cure cancer. Nobody earns a million euros for uploading a photo to a social network, it seems absurd to me,” he says.

The agency believes this could help bring down market prices and give a boost to small companies that cannot afford big advertising campaigns.

However, the initiative is not without its critics. Many are concerned that the unrealistic perfection of the models could influence the younger generation to become obsessed with achieving such perfection.

There is also criticism of the highly sexualised image of the models created. To which the agency responds that they are simply following the aesthetic already created by the real influencers and brands themselves.

“If we don’t follow this aesthetic, brands won’t be interested. To change this system, you have to change the vision of the brands. The world in general is sexualised.

News Related

OTHER NEWS

Volkswagen "very worried" about the future of its operations in SA

A senior Volkswagen executive involved in a global cost-cutting strategy said on Friday, 24 November, he was “very worried” about the future of the company’s operations in South Africa, which ... Read more »

Liz Truss backs Trump with call for Republican presidential victory

Photograph: Toby Melville/Reuters Liz Truss, the shortest-serving prime minister in British history, who was famously shown to have a shorter shelf life than a lettuce, has effectively backed Donald Trump ... Read more »

Standard Bank treasonous? We're literally helping to keep the lights on says CEO

Standard Bank treasonous? We're literally helping to keep the lights on says CEO Bruce Whitfield speaks to Lungisa Fuzile, Standard Bank SA CEO. Standard Bank is one of 28 banks ... Read more »

Israel, Hamas agree to extend truce for two days; Musk ‘would like to help rebuild Gaza’

Israel, Hamas agree to extend truce for two days; Musk ‘would like to help rebuild Gaza’ The UN said many people in Gaza still had no food or cooking fuel ... Read more »

This is what Pitso Mosimane said about the African Football League

Mamelodi Sundowns’ former coach, Pitso Mosimane, dismissed the African Football League Jingles shared his opinion and compared it to the CAF league and said that it was a mere tournament ... Read more »

Take note of these N3 road works between Westville and Paradise Valley

Take note of these N3 road works between Westville and Paradise Valley The N3 between the Westville viaduct and Paradise Valley interchange will be partially closed to traffic for the ... Read more »

UKZN medical student bags 2023 Health Excellence Rising Star Award

UKZN medical student bags 2023 Health Excellence Rising Star Award Durban — One of the country’s most progressive young minds in the medical field, fifth-year University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) medical ... Read more »
Top List in the World