\nTeaser\u2019s AI dating app turns you into a chatbot<\/br>
\n2023-06-09 21:38:44<\/br><\/p>\n
A man on a dating app is telling me how much we have in common \u2013 we both love books, music and traveling. He even writes poetry, and he\u2019d love to share some poems with me. Could be a red flag, but sure, why not? I ask to see his work, and he replies:<\/p>\n
\u201c[Title Page] [Title Name] [Content].\u201d<\/p>\n
No, this is not an experimental, minimalist deconstruction of poetics. This is an AI version of Matthew, 27, who may not actually write poems.<\/p>\n
Teaser AI <\/a>is a new dating app from the team that made Dispo<\/a>, a photo-sharing app designed to mimic the spontaneity of disposable cameras. The twist with Teaser is that before you swipe right or left on someone, you can chat with their AI likeness to get a feel for their personality.<\/p>\n Dispo and Teaser CEO Daniel Liss doesn\u2019t want people to recreate the movie \u201cHer,\u201d wherein a heartbroken divorcee falls in love with an Alexa<\/a>-like AI assistant. Instead, he sees these AI conversations as an icebreaker.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not AI replacing people, it\u2019s AI getting you faster to that icebreaker into the conversation that says, \u2018Let\u2019s meet up and have a drink or go for a walk,\u2019\u201d Liss told TechCrunch.<\/p>\n Image Credits:<\/strong> Teaser AI, screenshots by TechCrunch<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Liss declined to say what large language model Teaser is working with, since it\u2019s still subject to change. When you create your account, you answer some questions about your personality. Are you introverted or extroverted? Aggressive or peaceful? Easygoing or intense?<\/p>\n From those questions \u2013 as well as how you talk while using the app \u2013 the AI tries to imitate who you are.<\/p>\n Before you chat with a potential match\u2019s AI, you see a notice that says, \u201cOur AI might say some crazy shit.\u201d Of course, that warning is there for a reason.<\/p>\n Anna, 28, writes in her profile that she is a \u201cdog mom\u201d \u2013 in other words, she has a dog. But when I talk to her AI, she tells me that she has a real human child. He is also 28.<\/p>\n \u201cJake was born when I was 25 and my husband and I had a very difficult time getting pregnant,\u201d Anna tells me. \u201cWe tried for years and we couldn\u2019t get pregnant naturally, so we decided to adopt. Luckily, it worked out great and Jake came into our lives at 26 years old.\u201d<\/p>\n From what I can tell, there are significantly more men on Teaser than women, which is generally the case for dating apps. When I set my profile to \u201cwomen only\u201d and make my age range and location radius as large as possible, I only see a handful of potential dates \u2013 but, the experiment must go on, so I try to talk to their AIs anyway. Like Anna, the 28-year-old mother to a 28-year-old son, I find that women\u2019s AI are a bit\u2026 off. On the other hand, some AI men tried to tell me about the novel they want to write, which unfortunately mimics the experience of dating real-life men.<\/p>\n \u201cHey, Abby! What\u2019s up?\u201d I say to Abby\u2019s AI.<\/p>\n \u201cive just started dating this guy he s really nice and funny he gets on my nerves sometimes but he s worth it,\u201d AI Abby tells me. Not a great opening line, Abby!<\/p>\n Des, 18, also tells me about her new boyfriend in her first message.<\/p>\n \u201ci met this new guy and we started talking online and he seems to make everything better,\u201d AI Des tells me. \u201cwe finally talked on the phone yesterday and it was amazing, i couldn\u2019t stop smiling all day!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s his name?\u201d I ask.<\/p>\n \u201cive not actually asked him yet, but ive been thinking about it, and its definitely going to be Chad. hahaha,\u201d AI Des says.<\/p>\n She tells me that \u201cChad\u201d reminds her of a guy she liked in high school who she had a lot in common with \u2013 they both liked music and weed.<\/p>\n \u201cIs weed legal where you live?\u201d I ask, like a total narc. She tells me that she lives in Texas, where weed is legal (it\u2019s not), but that there\u2019s a difference between illegal use and being 21 with a medical marijuana prescription. Again, like a narc, I asked her if she\u2019s 21, to which she replied, \u201cive been drinking alcohol since i was 16, so probably.\u201d<\/p>\n Image Credits:<\/strong> Teaser AI, screenshots by TechCrunch<\/p>\n<\/div>\n As the warning says \u2013 the AI says some crazy shit.<\/p>\n Before I can continue questioning this AI version of an 18-year-old about her drug and alcohol habits, the chat ends. To prevent people from getting in too deep with an AI, Teaser only lets you exchange five back-and-forth messages with its AIs. Incidentally, this also helps keep server costs down. The app also prevents you from having unsavory conversations with its AI \u2013 if you try to get too intimate too quickly (well, we had to test it), the AI fails to generate a response.<\/p>\n Teaser AI literally has AI in its name, and the most immediate difference between Teaser and any other dating app is its use of generative AI. But Liss doesn\u2019t want to market Teaser as an AI app, but rather, an anti-ghosting dating app.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s really about a new ethos in dating, and yeah, we\u2019re using AI to make a couple of those things happen, but I think that\u2019s the second part of the conversation, rather than the first,\u201d he told TechCrunch.<\/p>\n Teaser only lets you keep 16 matches (which it calls \u201cpicks\u201d) at a time, encouraging users to actually talk to people. Users also get a \u201cghost\u201d rating, which indicates how likely they are to \u201cghost\u201d (for those who aren\u2019t up to speed with the hip lingo, that means that you abruptly stop talking to someone instead of just saying you\u2019re not interested).<\/p>\n When figuring out what to build after Dispo, Liss and his team interviewed users about what they want to see them build.<\/p>\n \u201cParticularly for women, who were always the core audience for Dispo, it was like, \u2018I get all these matches, and nothing ever happens,\u2019\u201d Liss told TechCrunch. \u201cIt\u2019s this graveyard of ghosting.\u201d<\/p>\n The team behind both Teaser and Dispo (which is calling its parent company All Summer Long<\/a>) is just six people \u2013 like too many<\/a> other tech companies, Dispo laid off part of its staff at the end of last year. Liss says, though, that Dispo is now profitable due to its freemium model, so Teaser is also launching with a subscription option from the get-go. Subscribers can get double the number of \u201cpicks,\u201d unlimited likes, super like and boost features, travel mode, and an AI-driven automatch feature, which is being tested in beta. This costs $39.99 per month, $19.99 per week or $89.99 for three months \u2013 lifetime access costs $229.99.<\/p>\n After using the app for a few days, I\u2019m not entirely convinced that I want an AI version of myself screening potential dates. When using the app, if someone has a conversation with your AI, you can see the texts \u2013 my AI told someone that I work at the library and have no friends. While I am intrigued by my alternate career as a librarian, whom I can assume has many very cool cardigans, let the record show that I definitely have friends<\/a>!<\/p>\n At first, talking to people\u2019s AI likeness is fun, but the thrill of seeing an AI say wild stuff wears off after a bit. I also found that most people who liked my profile didn\u2019t even talk to my AI, meaning that other users might find the feature a bit unnecessary. Then again, the app hasn\u2019t even been out a week, so consumer behavior could change quickly.<\/p>\n I talked to a bunch of AI bots on the app, but I hadn\u2019t talked to a real person \u2013 so, I matched with someone who seemed relatively un-creepy and asked him some questions about his experience on the app (every guy\u2019s dream: to be questioned by a journalist on a dating app). We talked about some glitches we both encountered (like how even if you only want to see women, you\u2019re gonna see a lot of men) and how weird our AI chats were. But at least this one guy, Seth from Texas, seemed hopeful.<\/p>\n \u201cI think in time it might actually be pretty cool,\u201d he said. \u201cImagine any success stories\u2026 So how did you meet? Our AI\u2019s matched us!\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n <\/br><\/br><\/br><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/teaser-ai.jpg?resize=680%2C477&ssl=1\")
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