Love in the AI era: 60% of dating app users communicate with robots

Norton, a cybersecurity company, has presented a shocking study on the impact of artificial intelligence on modern online dating. The results show that AI technologies are radically changing the ways of seeking romantic relationships, creating both new opportunities and serious threats.

According to the study, 60% of active dating platform users are confident they have communicated with interlocutors whose messages were written by artificial intelligence. Meanwhile, users themselves show significant interest in using AI: 64% are ready to use it for writing first messages, 63% for creating profiles, and 60% consider using AI as a personal dating consultant.

“As AI penetrates deeper into online communication and self-presentation methods, it’s critically important to understand both its advantages and ways of its malicious use,” notes Leyla Bilge, Norton’s fraud research director.

The study revealed alarming statistics: 55% of dating app users encounter suspicious profiles weekly. 40% of users have become targets of fraudsters, of which 41% suffered from various scam schemes. Over the past year, the number of blocked fraud attempts in the dating sphere has increased by 64%.

Among the most common types of fraud:
– Catfishing (55%).
– Romance scams (34%).
– Sugar relationship fraud (32%).
– Sextortion (31%).

AI use for creating fake profiles and realistic images poses a particular danger. Less than half of users (46%) can distinguish a fake photo from a real one. Meanwhile, 27% of users have discovered their own photos in other people’s profiles.

Norton notes that user vulnerability is often connected to feelings of loneliness: 79% of respondents admitted experiencing it, while 20% confirmed that due to loneliness, they make riskier decisions online. Social networks (27%) and dating apps (16%) are the main sources of this feeling.