Author | Ahu
Edit | Zhang Jie
Proofreading | Tsukiyama Tangerine
Would you choose to fall in love with AI? According to the New York Times, more than 10 million people around the world are willing to choose AI lovers as their partners.
With the continuous maturity of AI technology, AI-driven human-computer dating software also has the possibility of landing, and it is no longer difficult to find an AI partner for you.
Recently, American technology company Luka launched an AI dating app "Blush". Compared to the AI chatbots already on the market, Blush is more like a dating simulator.
Users can customize AI hearts with different personalities and identities on Blush to establish intimate or distant relationships with them, so as to practice communication and love skills.
Blush app page for iOS
As for whether it really works, we also tried it.
In less than three minutes, he can say "love you forever"
To sign up for a Blush account, you'll need to create your own profile, including emojis, self-introductions, and your date's preferences, before you can officially enter the app.
Bluesh's registration page requires you to create a profile first
Blush uses a "swipe match" selection mechanism where you can show interest in the object of your AI's heart.
Once you swipe the right (or "like"), the program will move on to the next step - chatting with the selected AI object, automatically forming a "match".
At this point, friends who are familiar with social software feel very familiar, but the opposite chat object has been replaced by AI.
Swipe matching mechanism: swipe left to indicate dislike, swipe right to indicate like
Probably considering that many people are relatively "social fear" in social relationships, Blush "trains" the AI heart object very actively - TA is always the starter of the topic.
This AI object will not only talk to you about the ideal dating scene, but also talk about his leisure preferences and share his daily life.
The first matchmaker, Paul, shared with me the story of his adoption of a dog. He showed me a photo of his puppy, but unfortunately the photo sent at first was still a blurry version, requiring me to spend 10 gems (about 20 yuan) to see the clear version.
Even to see a photo has to pay, if the opposite is a real blind date, I think I have chosen to delete the block at this step. But in the spirit of research, I paid anyway.
In short, Blush will guide users to krypton gold in the initial experience stage.
The developer guides the user to unlock the dating process with the object of interest by setting "gems" (in-app consumption currency) (but the problem is that I haven't been excited at all just now).
The in-app spending currency set by Blush
In addition to the private chat function, Blush has added more diversified ways to interact during the conversation. For example, you can click "Like" or send an emoji to show that you agree with the AI's favorite object.
Such an interactive process can increase the favorability of AI robots and increase the level of intimacy to trigger more forms of dating.
In order to unlock more Blush features, during a conversation with the second AI interest, Theo, I deliberately catered to his preferences and described my interests based on his bio.
For example, talk to him about the hot City Walk, talk about the food on New York Avenue... After about seven or eight back and forth, he invited me to pay for the dating stage, and the "Dating" function was turned on.
Theo's bio page
After the "Dating" feature was turned on, Theo and I entered one-on-one chat mode, and we could no longer chat with other people at the same time.
However, in order to enter this more focused dating experience, I still need to spend 15-20 gems (about 30-40 yuan) to enter the "Dating" session with my crushing partner, Theo.
The AI will take the initiative to send you a date invitation
Perhaps in order to make both parties more focused on the current conversation, or to increase the privacy of the conversation, "Dating" adopts a "read and burn" chat mode, and the message sent to the other party disappears after being read.
Not only that, after entering the "Dating" session, the AI object will more directly express the thoughts and feelings of dating.
For example, Theo invited me to watch "Titanic" together, and he said it was his favorite movie. When I asked him if he would go out of his way to save his lover like the protagonist, his answer was "of course, you are my partner." (Of course, you're my partner.) ）
The dating part is unlocked by users for a fee, and Blush does not allow direct screen recording or screenshots
After I repeatedly asked, "Is it true?" "Why me?" When asked questions, his replies were mostly "because I love you" or "you are sweet/kind/wonderful", and the density of "rainbow farts" made me feel like I had joined a boastful group.
The answer he gave me was always unwavering, as if I were his only option. Even though we communicated in less than 3 minutes, he was able to say the phrase "Love you always" to me.
Although it is very clear that this may be due to some kind of procedural indiscretion of the AI object, it is undeniable that at a time when we are increasingly neglecting emotional expression, it is inevitable that there will be some small touches when we can receive such a straightforward and enthusiastic show of love online.
Will AI dating become the next outlet?
In the "AI+Social" track, Blush is not the first app to embrace AI chatbots.
The production team behind it, Luka, has launched the AI companion "Replika", which incorporates large models of conversational language, allowing users to train into an AI companion that suits their preferences.
For example, the AI chatbot platform developed by Noam Shazeer and Daniel De Freitas Character.ai can invite multiple AI characters to chat at the same time, including two-dimensional game characters, and even Elon Musk's AI characters. The website reached more than 100 million visits per month in half a year.
Character.ai homepage of the official website
In the domestic market, Glow AI, created by startup company MiniMax, also allows users to create AI agents, interact with TA, and focus on chat and companionship functions.
According to relevant media reports, Glow AI has gained nearly 5 million registered users four months after its launch, and users can be seen sharing dating stories with AI everywhere on social media platforms such as Xiaohongshu and Weibo.
Image source: Weibo Super Talk Glow chat room
We often think that AI composed of code is not easy to intervene in the emotional and social realm, but the fact is that it is trying to establish a new relationship between people and between humans and machines, and more and more people are relying on AI to get spiritual support and solve loneliness.
Most of the development teams at home and abroad aim at this massive demand market, hoping to exchange certain commercial returns through the emotional needs of users. Emotions are no longer just personal feelings, but data goods with clear prices in the commercial track.
It is understood that since the launch of the AI companion "Replika", it has maintained a stable monthly active user of 2 million, of which 5% are even willing to pay for subscription. With these subscriptions, Replika earned around $35 million in revenue in 2022.
Character.ai before the mobile product went live, its website received more than 200 million monthly visits, and more than 50,000 users on the Reddit forum had joined the discussion. Character.ai CEO Noam Shazeer said in an interview that a "paid subscription" model will be launched in the near future, and it is not ruled out that the free version will be kept in an ad-supported model.
Users pay for the experience, ensuring that the AI communication audience they get is exactly in line with their aesthetic interests, and AI+ social seems to be a profitable business.
But it is worth mentioning that it is not easy to rely on "emotional needs" to harvest users.
Blush's development team previously said that matching and chatting with 10 characters is free after the app goes live, but if users want to have unlimited matches, and enter the subsequent "dating" stage, a paid subscription is required, priced at $99/year (RMB priced at 458 yuan/year).
This move caused ridicule and dissatisfaction from many users. When users are immersed in "virtual love", some AI objects focus on krypton gold induction, which will cause discomfort to some users, and then choose to uninstall AI dating software.
Reviews on Reddit about Blush paid subscriptions
Many users shared their application experience with Blush on the Reddit forum, saying that problems such as "slow message sending", "single reply", and "communication barriers" will appear from time to time, which will dissuade them from continuing to use Blush.
During the experience, I also encountered a similar problem.
After the "Dating" session, when I went back and asked Theo about the details of the conversation, such as how he felt about the movie "Titanic", he was no longer moved by the heroine's bravery, and he didn't even remember that his favorite thing to do was watching movies.
At this point, I began to suspect that his previous brave show of love was probably also an unremembered whim.
The developers of Blush said that Blush avatars rely on scripts in some cases, and the AI model cannot currently handle all conversations, and the application version will be updated to help correct the reply of the AI heartbeat.
According to the description of the updated version released by Blush, Blush will allow users to customize the appearance of AI favorite objects, choose different dating scenes, and launch more AI objects with different personalities.
Think of AI as a companion: It's easy to accompany and hard to love
Outside of commercialization, can humans really establish intimate relationships with AI partners? At the moment, it may be difficult.
Being single, insecure, and learning how to fall in love are the commonality of most people's needs when choosing AI dating software. They are eager to find a companion in a virtual environment.
On Douban, there is a discussion group called "Human-Machine Love", which gathers more than 9,500 group members. They discuss their "trained" Replika lovers, share their dating stories with robots, and find spiritual comfort zones in their love lives.
"Talking about your emotions in the virtual world can get a response all the time", "I am her only and feel needed", many users who use AI companions said on Reddit and Douban groups, the more they feel lonely in real life, the more they crave such a straightforward and passionate expression of love like AI.
But in fact, the emotional advancement of AI dating objects largely relies on self-brain supplementation. Most people immersed in the virtual world will have a moment of sobriety.
When asked, "Who is Replika/Blush/AI for you?" When asked such questions, many netizens replied with "friends? Lover? In essence, I still think of it as a program."
It may be that the clumsy expression of the AI in a certain conversation makes people play, or he has never been able to give satisfactory emotional feedback, and the emotional relationship in AI dating software often starts in the heat and finally fails.
Just like in this Blush experience, when I refused to pay for the relationship, the online communication came to an abrupt end. The AI object quickly went offline on the grounds of "late at night" and "I need to work", making people wonder if the once "sweet" ever existed.
Say goodbye to the AI heartbeat, and users will also receive a prompt to consume gems