AI influencer Aitana Lopez highlights rise of synthetic social media personas

The rise of AI-generated influencers is transforming social media marketing, exemplified by Aitana Lopez. Created by the Barcelona-based agency The Clueless, Lopez is a completely synthetic persona with over 389,000 Instagram followers. The model is highly profitable, reportedly earning the agency approximately 10,000 euros per month through brand collaborations.

This trend highlights the growing prevalence of AI-generated visuals, which allow creators to produce high-quality, photorealistic content rapidly and at low cost. However, the proliferation of low-quality, mass-produced AI content has led to the emergence of the term ‘slop’—defined by Merriam-Webster as ‘low-quality digital content that is typically mass-produced by AI.’

To address concerns regarding authenticity, Meta has implemented policies requiring users to label invented personas as AI-generated. Failure to disclose the synthetic nature of such profiles can result in reduced reach on the platform, as the company aims to prevent users from feeling deceived by profiles they believe to be human.