Rubén Cruz and Diana Núñez are the young founders of The Clueless, a modeling agency from Barcelona that has shaken up social networks in record time. In fact, you don’t have to scroll through her feed for long to find her first post on Instagram – it was published on October 28th. The reason for their success, or at least for its viral spread, is twofold and goes by the names of Aitana López and Maia Lima. They are the agency’s two top models and currently the only ones represented by it. Although her profiles only went online a few months ago, Aitana’s first one already has more than 200,000 followers on Instagram. And while the two could pass as any two influencers, both were created using artificial intelligence (AI).
“We liked the idea that there was some doubt about whether they were real or not,” explains Diana Núñez. A real trompe l’oeil, because “if you just look at it briefly, you almost don’t notice it”, if it weren’t for the subtle hint in her bio, the hashtag #aimodel, which gives her away.
The two founders met while studying graphic design in Barcelona. First a degree in Interactive Experiences and then another Masters in Communication Strategies and Art Direction. After completing their studies, they decided to found Benana Studio, their own creative agency, in 2019. An endeavor that didn’t turn out as they expected. “At the beginning we were barely making ends meet, but at the beginning of the year we lost most of our customers and no longer had work,” says Rubén. Faced with this challenge, they remembered what they had always been told at university: “If you don’t have a job, find one.” And that’s exactly what they did.
FashionUnited spoke to the two about the success of their agency and their models, who have attracted both love and hate in the media.
You could say that The Clueless grew out of your first business crisis. How did you come up with this idea?
We realized that the market was changing and that most of our problems were due to external factors, so we finally asked ourselves: “What if we created our own influencers?” And so we changed the traditional structure of the shoots , by replacing everything – locations, photographers, models – with a computer and being able to take on more jobs than before.
And once the idea was found, what was the next step?
We experimented with many AIs to see how they work and find the solution that works best for us. The beauty of our models is that they are very real and we chose the most realistic solution. At first, Maia Lima didn’t exist yet. We started with another model, Aisha, as a safety guarantee as aesthetically she looked like a classic Barbie. And with Aitana, a fitness and cosplay lover, as a personal challenge. Surprisingly, Aitana received the most likes. She had more than ten thousand followers, while Aisha had no more than five hundred. We realized that perhaps the new generations were looking for something other than a blonde girl with blue eyes.
“The beauty of our models is that they are very real, we chose the most realistic solution.”
And what’s different about Aitana and Maia?
At the beginning of the project we spoke to the head of the master’s program and he told us that the idea was good, but that we should not forget to give it character. Our models couldn’t just be a pretty face, we had to give them a personality and a life to make it work. Even if they don’t exist, they can have things in common with humans. Aitana is a confident woman, she is a gamer, she likes sports. She shares many hobbies with the younger generations. Nowadays, young people love the streaming platform Twitch, TikTok, and video games, but also the gym.
“Our AI models couldn’t just be a pretty face, we had to give them a personality.”
And do you also notice this engagement with the community?
Yes, they get comments, some we respond to to build a relationship… There are even followers who ask questions about their training program. Eventually we managed to get in touch with them.
In the virtual world, the most famous is the influencer Lil Miquela, created by the Brud agency in 2016. How do avatars of this style differ from yours?
Lil Miquela is a 3D model and when she was “born” people thought she was a character from the video game Sims. They even thought it was part of a campaign for The Sims 4, hence its success. With The Clueless we took a lot of her ideas from her. Just like them, our models interact with real life. We play the same game: “I exist, but I do not exist.” In their case, location determination works very well, we can’t do it because we don’t have the means to do it. This is what artificial intelligence is missing. In the case of Miquela and 3D, you can take a photo of the Sagrada Familia and put it in the background, but the AI does not recognize the Sagrada Familia, or at least it does not create it for the user.
Among your values as a modeling agency, you talk about diversity. Will we see AI models with more physical and ethnic diversity?
We are working on that. Our discourse revolves around diversity, but the market does not. That’s why we started the project with two more “normative” profiles. At the beginning of next year we will introduce two new models. One will be Laila, a 29-year-old Mexican woman – Aitana is 25 and Maia is 24 – with a less “normative” body type. We were inspired by (real) curvy models like Ashley Graham, Barbie Ferreira and Tara Lynn. She will be closely linked to the foodie world, she will publish recipes, but she will also be interested in psychology or the body positive movement. And the next (although less definitive) will be Sofia, a transgender model. We’re taking it step by step because releasing more models means expanding the team. Even if they are artificial, the people behind them are not. We have to manage their phones and networks.
And coming back to Aitana, her Instagram posts feature products from brands like Zara, Skims and Olaplex. Are these real collaborations?
No, they aren’t. We use them as a strategy to attract the attention of companies and businesses. With a community of 200,000 followers, it’s easier for them to see our posts and notice us. And some of them contact us.
“Just like Lil Miquela, our models interact with real life. We play the same game: ‘I exist, but I don’t exist’.”
And what kind of collaborations are emerging?
Above all, new business models. Many brands call us to develop their entire campaigns with AI or to improve their inventory of models.
Can you explain to us in more detail what a stock and models means?
There are cases where we need to create AI models from scratch based on a brand’s values and attributes. For example, when you design a logo. In other cases, they ask us to create basic mockups for their website or marketplace. We offer you the complete service: photography, product, model.
Finally, do you think there is a business model in which AI and real-world models coexist?
I think that real models and AI will coexist well for the time being. But I also believe that AI will gain more and more ground. Not in relation to the authors of content, because these are only photos and not videos, but in relation to shoots or similar tasks. We also believe that the younger generation no longer notices the difference because they have become accustomed to these codes and are “chained” to their cell phones.
This translated article previously appeared on FashionUnited.ES