Argentina’s ‘Gemelo Digital’ AI mocked over typos, privacy fears

President Javier Milei announced Gemelo Digital Social on May 22 on X, calling it a paradigm change in social policy and signing the post MAGA. VLLC!. The Ministry of Human Capital describes the project as a national social digital twin that will use artificial intelligence to model policy scenarios before they are implemented.

The ministry says the system will build a dynamic virtual replica of Argentine society by combining data from government agencies and private sources. The planned database would include records on health, income, education and consumption, feed those records into AI models, identify patterns and project outcomes to help policymakers plan interventions in near real time. The ministry calls the results public intelligence.

The announcement was accompanied by a promotional video that drew public attention for technical and visual errors. Viewers noted a graphic reading MULTIPLES FUENTES without an accent, a fullscreen line that read PRIMER SISTEMA QUE AYUDA PREDICIR EL FUTURO missing a preposition and misspelling predecir, an AI-generated image of Minister Sandra Pettovello presenting the project, a Singapore flag in one frame and an Amazon AWS logo visible on screen. Tech commentator Maximiliano Firtman wrote that the clip showed grammar and spelling errors, a fake minister presenting with holograms, a Singaporean flag, an Amazon AWS logo and a poor speech.

Opposition senator Agustín Rossi filed a formal information request asking for the program’s legal framework, data protections and guarantees for citizens’ rights. Rossi wrote on X that the future cannot become surveillance over citizens. The Ministry of Human Capital has not published a detailed governance plan or explained the errors in the video.

Privacy experts and analysts raised questions about the project’s technical and legal safeguards. They warned that aggregating large volumes of personal data across agencies and private firms requires strict anonymization protocols and a clear legal basis. Experts noted that no public rules have been released on data access, retention, oversight or redress.

Analyst Julián Roô wrote that Argentina risks becoming a laboratory for analyzing society when algorithms classify citizens by risk, productivity or behavior. Political analyst Pablo Munoz Iturrieta wrote that the project sounded futuristic and efficient but compared it to the aims of authoritarian technocrats.

Digital twin technology is already used in engineering and urban planning to simulate physical systems. The ministry described Gemelo Digital as the first application of that concept to social policy at national scale. For now, the government has not released a full technical description of the data sources, algorithms, anonymization methods or oversight mechanisms that would govern the system. Senator Rossi’s information request is pending.