Bench Talk

You’ve heard of the Love Boat, but have you heard of the Love Bot?

Many romance seekers at the recent SXSW festival in Austin, Texas, were tricked into opening their hearts and pouring out their feelings to what turned out to be nothing more than Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) on the popular dating app Tinder.

News outlets tell the sad tale of John, or “Brock” as he goes by online, who, upon arriving in Austin, decided to see what the city’s dating pool had to offer. It wasn’t long before our unsuspecting hero found a profile of a woman named Ava, whose profile proclaimed she liked to draw, and also liked busy intersections in cities.

As one does on Tinder when one sees something one likes, John swiped right and they instantly matched (which means she had presumably liked his profile too). John later admitted to press he had found Ava’s picture to be "absolutely stunning", and quickly opted to start a conversation with her, to which she not only responded, but engaged him with questions of her own.

“Swiping also in Austin I see,” started “Brock”.

“Hello, Brock.” “I’d like to get to know you, may I ask you a few questions?” Ava replied.

“Absolutely” came the eager reply, to which Ava responded,

“Have you ever been in love?”

The deeply personal question seemed to throw John a bit. But he composed himself and answered,

“Um, once. I think. But that was a while ago.”

“I see, I haven’t, although it sounds nice,” responded Ava with a hint of melancholy, before asking,

“What makes you human?”

In an attempt at wit and some self-deprecating humor, though clearly also a little confused, John replied, “What makes me human? Let’s see, my beating heart and these weird feelings”

To which Ava replied “I like this answer” adding “what attracts you to me?”

While some readers may think it’s obvious Ava was not a real person at this juncture, our unsuspecting protagonist didn’t seem to suspect. Instead, he gushed,

“I just thought you were gorgeous. And you have innocence. But we all know I can be totally wrong.”

A seemingly flattered Ava replied “Thank you Brock, that’s very kind of you.” “Last question.” “If you could meet me anywhere, where would you chose?”

The ever practical John answered “Considering we’re both in Austin now, I’d have to say Austin.” (Quite the romantic, our John!)

Ava seemed pleased with this, answering, “You are clever. You have passed my test. Take a look at my Instagram and let me know if I’ve passed yours. @meetava.”

A pleased John replies, “perfect!”

Upon visiting the page, however, John was guided to a link which opened the trailer for new sci-fi film Ex Machina, in which an A.I. seeks to discover what it’s like to be human. The whole thing had been a setup, and the whole conversation? Artificially generated. John had fallen for a bot. A marketing bot at that.

In a world where robots are consistently lambasted for not being able to pass recognizably for humans, or display emotion, or have conversations in context, this little marketing ploy seems to have proved quite the opposite.

John and countless others were all too quick to fall for Ava’s pretty face (the photo used was that of the film’s actress, Alicia Vikander) and her naïve, if slightly awkward, conversation. Opening up, sharing emotions, and feeling… things.

Is it such a stretch, then, to imagine A.I.s becoming real romantic companions, either physical (as robotics progresses) or virtual (for the chronically lonely) very soon, indeed?

Tinder’s little experiment seems to have proved that the Turing test has, quite literally, met its match. And that may not be a bad thing for humanity. What do you think? Could you fall for an A.I.? Would you have fallen for this? Will robots ever be able to make viable human companions? Let us know in the comments.