“If there’s a chance to get wined and dined, in this economy I’mma take it” Hallie
The gamers The gamification of dating apps is well known, and those coming out on top are the serial daters fully addicted to the swipe and the ego-boost each buzz of a match brings. In a league of their own, they’ve long lost their way from a quest for love, instead turning the process into a sport unto itself.
Leeds-based Jack*, 27, is one such fella. “When I first moved to the city, I remember thinking I just needed to chat to as many girls as possible,” says the tech recruiter. “I was across three different apps trying to get anybody to come on a date.”
Now he’s only on Hinge, but he and his flatmate labour over prompts and photos on an almost daily basis, “because there really is a formula”. The competition between them both is out of control. “We show off matching someone hot almost like, ‘Look at this Top Trump card I got, she definitely beats yours!’” Jack says, sheepishly. They treat the idea of going on multiple dates in a week as an unspoken challenge – the more ‘bases’ hit the better – and the competition isn’t just with each other. “We kept joking about this terrible uni saying which was, ‘If you don’t have sex for a month, you become a virgin again,’” he says. “But we’ve accidentally started to self-enforce it.”
TheAIinauthentics
Jack knows his approach is tied in with pretty low self-worth, but that doesn’t stop him from spending a third of his phone screen time on Hinge, AKA a full hour a day. This, however, is small fish compared to apps’ top messengers. Data from kink-positive app Feeld shows one champion user sends more than 2,800 messages a day, while two
A form of cheating or a cheeky life hack? The great
AI debate has officially wheedled its way into dating.
In a bid to artificially enhance a flying start, people are using apps like YourMove AI, DatingAI and Rizz to generateprofiles,promptsandrepliesbyscanning uploaded dating profiles and messages. Seems far-
fetched?Well,oneinfourAmericanscurrentlydoit,
according to a study from this year by McAfee.
Driven by dating fatigue, Miami-based Artem, 35,
has been using Rizz for six months. He believes it’s no worse than getting help from mates in the group chat.
“I can’t lean on them to help me workshop a witty response all the time, so Rizz has kind of replaced that for me,” says the accountant. He alwayseditstheapp’ssuggestions,
but it helps him to be more creative withthosecleverone-liners.
“Isn’titsuperinau-
thentic?” I hear you say.
Well,“Isn’tonlinedating generally,especiallyin thenextfrontier.”
thetalking stage?” is Artem’s rebuttal. “I was in high school beforedatingapps,whenpeoplemeetingonthe internetwasahugestigma.Theinternet,and meeting on it, has become our default. AI is just
Anyway, is AI assistance much different fromtheleg-uppremiumappmembersget?
Hinge payers grew by 33% in 2023, enjoying benefitslikespeciallyorderedmatchesbasedon who is near, active or most compatible. In fact,
according to Tinder, over a third of daters say they would use AI to help build their profiles and most
18-25-year-oldsbelieveAIcanworkwell,especial-
ly for the first prompt. Cheats never prosper, but maybeAIistheperformanceenhancerwemight others have daily averages of over 2,000 – compared with the majority average of 50.
Now that’s a burnout waiting to happen.
just get away with?
*Names changed for privacy reasons
“I vetted him a bit, and figured if he’s the type of guy to offer up [$1,000] cash to eat steak with me, he’s got to be interesting enough for a potential story” Mimi
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