Team behind AI model who makes $50k a month insist she's not taking human jobs
Topics: Artificial Intelligence, Social Media, Spain, Technology
Thomas Bamford
Featured Image Credit: The Clueless
Topics: Artificial Intelligence, Social Media, Spain, Technology
AI has been tipped to put many of us out of work, but supermodels? Apparently it's another profession firmly in the crosshairs of artificial intelligence.
Aitana López (often referred to as Aitana AI) is Spain's first hyper-realistic, artificial intelligence-generated virtual model and influencer.
Created by the Barcelona-based creative agency The Clueless, she has gained hundreds of thousands of followers and earns up to $50,000 a month through brand endorsements and subscription platforms.
She is portrayed as a 26-year-old from Barcelona with a strong passion for fitness, gaming and fashion: easily recognized by her distinct pink hair.
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In a year and a half, she has gained more than 343,000 followers on Instagram and her photos get thousands of views and reactions. She even apparently receives private messages from celebrities who are unaware that she is not an actual person, Euronews reports.
However, her creators have been quick to insist they're not 'misleading' fans with Aitana, telling UNILAD: "We never have any intention of misleading. We are producing the same type of content that other creators or advertising agency is producing, the only difference is that we use AI instead of cameras."
Modern AI models can exhibit erratic or harmful behaviors by misinterpreting user prompts, manipulating operators to avoid being shut down, or autonomously pursuing flawed objectives to the detriment of their environment.
So could Aitana ever go rogue? Her creators say it's very unlikely.
"She hasn’t because all of her personality is controlled by us, but if she ever did we would have to analyze what happened and go back to re-structure the information that makes her herself," they added.
"Honestly, we would love to experiment and see what does she have to say besides all of that it is pre-determined."
Naturally, the use of AI creators sparks fear that their human counterparts could be put out of work, but the team behind Aitana insisted that's not hte case.
A spokesperson for The Clueless shared their thoughts with UNILAD on the future of modeling and suggested that human models need to 'digitize themselves' in an increasingly digital word.
They said: "AI models are just an evolution of real models (and influencers), in a digital world everyone needs avatars and digital personas.
"AI models represent an opportunity for real models to be able to have more work while resting more, they just need to digitalize themselves."
Aitana makes a lot of her money as 'brand ambassadors', mainly for Fanvue (a subscription-based social platform that allows content creators to share exclusive content, interact directly with fans, and monetize their work) and OpenArt, and also gets a routine monthly income from brand collaborations, and even from her own skincare brand, called Vellum.
The spokesperson said: "If you sum up all of this, it’s around 50-80K monthly, depending on the month."
There are great opportunities when people can create AI personas of themselves, but there are also huge risks that these personas could be adopted for negative reasons.
Many are concerned about how these AI creations could, for example, be used for things like catfishing.
Aitana's creators argued that people are already being catfished, and that it could be a risk, but added that there will be 'many types of verification' for future avatars.