Pettovello Denies the Social Digital Twin, but Evidence Abounds That It Is Already Underway

Violence is lying, Pettovello. The announcement made by the Ministry of Human Capital in May raised concerns, doubts, and questions that the ruling party preferred to evade. In fact, the ministry led by Sandra Pettovello has just denied the implementation of the Social Digital Twin. However, there are plenty of reasons to suspect that the project is already underway.

“For decades, the State reacted without being able to anticipate.” Thus begins the video with which, in May of this year, the Ministry of Human Capital announced that “Argentina launches the first Social Digital Twin model.” The futuristic propaganda spot does not lie. At least not in its intention. Because if it is in the realm of metadata that the Government proposes its “cultural battle,” allow us to respond to what its metalanguage says. And in that sense, reacting is not the same as responding. The Government tries to distance itself from providing answers through reaction: “No, not at all —they say now— there is no Social Digital Twin underway.”

That was the notification received by various actors such as the Vía Libre Foundation and Deputy Agustín Rossi, a month and a half after they had submitted requests for public information to the Ministry to learn the technical, legal, and ethical details of this initiative. Perhaps we are witnessing the first prediction of the Twin. Because a large part of the questions, doubts, and disagreements that the news sparked at the media, social, and legal levels fed the algorithmic bureaucracy. And perhaps only then did Milei manage to “anticipate” that the announcement was not so cool. Javier, think, be smart. At least artificially. Without forgetting that “AI can make mistakes” and even have “hallucinations.”

Pettovello has a diploma in making things appear and disappear. In 2024, Human Capital concluded, after an audit, that 50% of the community kitchens receiving food assistance were nonexistent. In 2025, the ministry admitted that the audit itself was nonexistent. The blame, of course, fell on administrative processes that, precisely, as the promo promised, the Twin would optimize.

More than one reader will recall that Nicholas Negroponte has argued for decades that personalized technology is the most advanced form of individual freedom. In fact, in his book Being Digital (1995), he anticipated a future where each person would receive exactly the information they needed, filtered to their measure. The American computer scientist defined those who questioned the “progress of science” as reactionaries, fearful of changes hidden behind some ethical concern. Ethics that, in Sandra’s aesthetic —as style or coherence— is unquestionable: in the face of any setback, feign ignorance.

But denying the existence of the Twin does not prevent the one who presides and predicts from having been acting, for some time and for the sake of progress, with algorithmic malice. Returning to the metalanguage of the announcement, the verb “launches” does not indicate a future action. And if it did, it would not exempt the Executive —nor the other two branches of government— from analyzing existing regulatory frameworks or debating new legislation that sets the boundaries of the playing field. “Launches” implies action here and now. Or, in specific contexts, a fait accompli, through the use of the “historical present” with which “epic” narratives are constructed. In other words, call it Social Digital Twin or Oracle of Delphi, there are plenty of elements to assert that the State has already executed at least part of what it admitted and now denies.

It is important to note that the term Digital Twin predates the rise of Artificial Intelligence. Emulating the behavior of a rocket, a factory, or even a city through an algorithm (mathematical instructions) fed with data to make human decisions based on that virtual model has been practiced since the 1960s. So, what risks do we face? A few months ago, it was explained why Decree 941/25 signed by Javier Milei violates the Data Protection Law and opens the door to state control of “cyberspace.” It also detailed how the regulation that amended the National Intelligence Law No. 25,520, with special emphasis on strengthening “cybersecurity,” could serve to validate mass or intrusive surveillance tools over citizens. Data cross-referencing, algorithmic profiling, risk scoring, etc.

Furthermore, it was highlighted that certain calls for tender under the Cybersecurity Program for Critical Infrastructures, financed with loans from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) OC AR 5735, were moving in that direction. Five months later, the State itself proved the point: implementing a model like the Social Digital Twin requires dynamic algorithmic profiling that calculates probabilities of individual behavior. But it is no longer NASA simulating an Apollo mission; it is a State emulating a society. That is, the infrastructure is people, our data.

Note that at the end of the announcement, behind Pettovello there is a screen with several logos, including those of the IDB and AWS (Amazon Web Services), the world’s leading cloud computing platform. But, if we are to simulate, let’s pretend that the Twin really does not exist. And even that the video was never published. Let’s feign ignorance. Of course, to do that we would also have to ignore that on April 10, the official website of the Ministry of Human Capital reported that it “implemented the Social System (Sisoc), a comprehensive technological platform that records, centralizes, and analyzes in a single system information related to individuals, families, and community spaces covered by social programs,” which allows “centralizing social data, consolidating millions of nominal records, and building a digital infrastructure that strengthens management, improves traceability of interventions, and enables integrated information for decision-making.” The statement ends: “Social management ceases to be reactive and welfare-based and becomes preventive, formative, and oriented toward the development of human capital.”