Ascenso de Aitana López: primer modelo español de IA que gana $10.000 al mes

Aitana Lopez has taken Instagram by storm since her debut last year. But the 25-year-old pink-haired model has one notable distinction – she’s completely computer-generated.

Aitana Lopez’s Creator

Created by Barcelona-based designer Rubén Cruz and his agency The Clueless, Aitana’s Instagram bio describes her interests as Barcelona, gaming, and fitness. Cruz designed Aitana to be the ideal virtual model – beautiful and engaging without the ego or demands of human celebrities.

In an interview with Euronews, Cruz revealed he came up with the idea for Aitana while past modeling projects were stalled. He grew frustrated dealing with real influencers who had outsized egos or just wanted to “make a lot of money by posing.”

To gain more control over his creative vision, Cruz decided to generate Aitana entirely through AI. The result has been a smash success – Aitana now has over 270k followers enamored with her stunning photos from locations around the world.

Aitana Lopez’s Earnings

Her monthly income is less predictable than traditional human influencers according to Cruz. He says Aitana’s earnings are a little above €1,000 per promotion, and the total can go up to €10,000 (over $10,000) per month depending on her sponsorship deals and engagement over that period.

Humanizing Aitana

As the first fully virtual AI influencer from Spain, Aitana Lopez breaks the mold of traditional social media stars. Since she lacks a physical form, her photoshoots utilize advanced AI generation tools and Photoshop instead of real-life wardrobe changes.

According to her creator, designer Rubén Cruz, “In the first month, we realized 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. We had to tell a story.”

Cruz explained that without a human element of personality and relatability, Aitana risked coming across as just a series of curated pictures. So his team worked to imbue her virtual persona with more of a sense of identity and narrative by how they presented her AI-generated content.

This approach of blending AI photography with an engaging fictional biography helped Aitana transcend being merely an algorithm and connect with her large Instagram following as a vibrant virtual personality. It demonstrated how advanced generation tools, when paired with strategic storytelling, can give AI influencers a sense of life.

In Closing

By pioneering the use of virtual influencers, Cruz has not only built a lucrative brand with Aitana. He’s demonstrated how AI can fill a role traditionally held by humans, without the hassles of big personalities or money demands that plague the influencer industry.

However, Aitana’s existence raises questions about the future of social media stardom and advertising in a world where humanity is no longer a requirement for fame. Aitana is paving the way for a new generation of fully AI-generated influencers.