No one wants to get catfished on a first date, but living in the times of artificial intelligence, it seems that the dating scene has more pitfalls than ever before. I first discovered this when I went on a date with a guy from Hinge and he looked absolutely nothing like his AI-generated picture.
His face wasn’t perfectly symmetrical at all! Not only that, but he wasn’t even holding a sword!
Obviously, people want to put their best foot forward when it comes to selecting pictures for their dating profile. All the pictures on mine are in the best lighting, without any blemishes, and I’m always posed in the sexiest ways. However, I do hold myself and others to the standard that the pictures should be somewhat realistic. That’s why I was so offended when Michael, who I first thought I was attracted to, chose an AI portrait that looked absolutely nothing like him. Like, at least choose one that shows that your beard doesn’t connect!
I don’t know how I’m ever going to trust anyone on these dating apps again.
When he sat down across from me at the restaurant he picked out, I was expecting him to address the elephant in the room. I wasn’t expecting much — just a simple, ‘I know I look a little different from my pictures, haha,’ or a ‘Hope you still like me without all the fake brush strokes!’ However, he never broached the topic during the entire dinner. I really wouldn’t have held back on my insults if he mentioned it, but he still should’ve been brave enough to admit it.
After that date, I never saw other Hinge users’ AI portraits the same way again. This whole time, I thought they all looked just like those pictures derived from the intellectual property of real human artists. After all, isn’t that the whole point of AI?
I guess it’s not so intelligent after all.
Sure, as a society, pretending to be someone else on the internet in order to secure a date is looked down upon, but it seems we have a huge new problem on our hands in the digital dating sphere. I can’t even imagine how many other people have been fooled by these ubiquitous AI portraits, only to realize the truth when their date shows up without massive anime boobs or a neon background of outer space. This, more than anything else, is why we need restrictions on AI usage now!
