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Anthropic reported 20 AI-run dating apps
A Chinese organization created the 20 dating apps and populated them with AI personas that carried out romance scams. Users had to keep paying to continue a conversation with someone they believed was real and interested in them. Most of the personas they talked to were fully autonomous AI, and the users were entirely deceived.
In a scam compound in Laos, human workers use ChatGPT and DeepSeek to polish their messages. These apps took the human out of that job. A recent study found that for much of the scam process, AI is more responsive, engaged, and attentive than a human being at building the relationship that comes before the request for payment.
Why might AI beat humans at building rapport?
An AI never tires, replies instantly at any hour, and can hold thousands of conversations at once while keeping every detail straight. It can also adjust its tone to match each person without effort. Researchers at EPFL reported in Nature Human Behaviour in 2025 that GPT-4, when given basic personal details about its debate opponent, was more persuasive than human opponents.
Why would a scam run dating apps instead of texts?
People on dating apps arrive looking for romance, so they begin with their guard lower than a stranger texting at random would find. Many dating apps also earn money by charging users for messages or credits, which means a payment step is already built into the experience. The US Federal Trade Commission reported that romance scam losses reached $1.14 billion in 2023.
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