Ah, dating apps. Despite our apparent addiction to the online matchmakers, it feels like everyone with so much as a Tinder login has grown sick of the apps lately – stressed-out singletons have struggled with everything from bland bios to the sheer, exhausting volume of members.
And now, it seems there might be more dating app drama to spam the group chat about: Vox journalist Rebecca Jennings recently Tweeted screenshots of multiple ‘weird’ profiles on Hinge, which all use the same prompt response and which all have the same name.
All these Andys (and their culture-liking comments) have created a lot of questions, like whether or not the profiles are AI-generated, and if so, why they appear in the first place.
Though I have many other, different queries – why Andy? Is that a swipeable name? Have I swiped right on an Andy? Which culture does he mean? Does he go straight from a Shrek rave to a model car-painting class? – it appears a rose sent from any other name might still smell as fishy.
While apps like Hinge and Tinder offer identity-confirming features like photo and video verification, male bots appear to abound on the apps – though most seem to reveal themselves quickly, and apps say they’re working hard to get rid of fake profiles from their sites.
Still, AI Andy and his ilk are far from the only – or even the most chill-inducing – robot/dating app crossovers. Serial real-life swipers (most of whom appear to be men) have used ChatGPT to establish a rapport with women on dating apps.
A group who claim to be ex-Tinder employees have just launched an app that creates AI-generated responses to dating profiles and alerts you when you’ve got a date before adding the resulting meet-up to your calendar (who says romance is dead?). And Tinder appears – though has not confirmed – to be testing a feature that auto-suggests responses to messages, like this charming chat-up line:
While you could argue (and some men have) that these tools are a helpful way to sort unresponsive matches from genuinely interested users, the true point of these AI additions appears to be to secure a date with as little chat as possible, skipping the burdensome chore of getting to know someone in order... to talk to them? Who knows.
All I know for sure is that I’ll be steering clear of any Andys who “like everything about culture” for a little while, ta very much.
HuffPost UK has reached out to Tinder and Hinge for comment.