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This bachelorette will date one of these eligible bachelors based solely on their text, a letter, and one phone call. Ooh, has me blushing. But she has no idea that the guys will secretly be using AI to elevate their flirt game. I'm going to use Claude. Your move AI. The Rizz app. All of them except one. I do hate AI. I will not be using AI. I think it's making our culture more lazy and disingenuous. Will AI give the other guys an edge, or will their secret be discovered? I feel like he might have looked this up on ChatGPT. I don't want to date a robot. It's like he's just trying to get in my pants.
Stop it. to get Conde Nasty here at Wired. Hi, I'm Lexi. I'm really excited for this experiment cuz I find that dating nowadays is all about looks and not about who you are as a person. With a busy schedule, I tend to travel a lot, and I'm looking for someone who is a good communicator. I think that's really important in a relationship nowadays, especially with all the texting, FaceTime. So, someone who can talk, someone who can banter with me, someone who can keep up with me and my princess energy. Lexi won't know what the guys look like since they're in another studio. So, you guys have seen the guys. Are they all cute? We can't answer that. Oh my gosh. So, these bachelors will really have to express themselves in the first
round of our blind dating experiment. I guess it's about the inside. But like All right, it's time to text Ethan. My name is Ethan Downs. I am looking for love. I'm going to find out if Claude can help me with my texting game. Let's see how this goes. To be true to the experiment, Ethan can only send texts that his AI wingman has generated. To set the stage, Ethan gives Claude a prompt explaining that he wants to seem genuine and likable in his texts. Hey Ethan. It's Lexi. I'm really excited to be texting with you. Got the text. Hey Ethan, it's Lexi. I'm really excited to be texting with you today. What would we do for our first date?
All right, so we're going to copy and paste this into the Claude app and let's see what the response is. If he says drinks, it's a basic answer, Ethan. And I'm not a basic girl. She seems enthusiastic and fun. Here are a couple directions you could go. I'd want to keep it low-key but memorable. Maybe grab some food somewhere we can actually talk, then just walk around and see where the night takes us. Less about the plan, more about good conversation. Sounds like a good text. I feel like I could send that. Let's go with it. I can't wait to see the typing bubbles. He's typing.
A long answer. Okay, Ethan. I'm a foodie. If we're grabbing a bite, what food are we having? Okay, she just responded. I'm also going to heart the message cuz I do like his myself. So embarrassing, guys. We're going to copy and paste this now. And Claude's response is "Ooh, a foodie. I respect it. This. Okay, I'm taking you somewhere with really good uh sushi, Italian, tacos. What's your go-to?" Smiley face like this. Well, let's copy and paste that. I like it. Good job, Claude. I like he did an emoji. I'm not there yet. Uh, I'll start doing emojis on like the fifth or sixth message. For a first date, sushi. I'm a girly girl who loves
being and to be spoiled. How would you make me feel special when we get sushi? Well, that's a paragraph. Let's see what Claude says. Oh, he's typing. Come on, Ethan. I can tell he's good with his words. Wow, look at that answer! Okay. Let's buckle in and read this novel. Here's how I'd make you feel special. I'd actually pay attention, ask you real questions, remember the little things you say. I'd want to know what makes you light up, not just small talk. You can wear whatever pink outfit you want, just know I'm going to notice. Woo! Ethan has me blushing. I will do an emoji because I enjoyed texting with him. Actually, I'm going to do the blushy. Ethan, good job.
All right. Shot my shot. Uh we're going to switch. I'm here today to compete with people who are going to use AI. I'm not going to do that. I'm just going to be myself and see how that goes. Let's ease into Luke a little. Did you enjoy your breakfast? Hey Lexi, I didn't eat breakfast. I usually don't get hungry until the middle of the day. Feeling he's drafting something good. Oh. He has answered. Honestly, good answer cuz I didn't either. I was nervous. I'm uh a terrible texter in real life, so.
Ooh. When you have downtime, what is your favorite thing to do? Luke is already a little more chill with his texting, I see. Ethan was a little more structured. It's noted. Okay, he's typing. I like to read and watch movies. What about you? She could be like, I hate staying in uh and this isn't going to work. Next, you know, who knows? This is part of my point about using AI. If you're not yourself, you're just going to end up spending time with somebody that you don't actually enjoy spending time with. I love to watch movies and eat takeout while I do it. Got to be transparent. Sounds like a good time to me. Oh, he's typing. The bubbles. He knows.
He knows that this text is going to determine if he can get all this. Oh boy, my autocorrect is really messing me up here. I'm sorry. Our boy's doing his best, but it's feeling a little dry. AND I GOT AN EMOJI. Uh it's like the smiley face with the blushing. Yeah, I'm just going to heart it to be polite. All right. I feel like he wasn't trying to oppress me too much, but giving me this is me. I'm Luke. I kind of like it though. I'm going to heart it. All right, so she hearted my last text, so I'm back in the game. Next man.
Hi, I'm Tom and I'm looking for someone I can be myself with and we can form a great team. Kind of like the Mega Powers, Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage. All right, let's see if Rizz can help my texting game. I can't imagine it'll make me any worse. Once Lexi's text is pasted into Rizz, the app offers wildly different responses depending on the mood Tom picks. Read receipts on is brave. Already a green flag though. This is the problem with this, it's slow. She's going to think I'm like illiterate. Better now that you're messaging me. That's a good one.
Okay, Tom. Good answer, Tom. Already flirting. What does your ideal night out look like? So, I'm not going to do the NSFW reply cuz it says, "You pinning me down, riding hard." Go with the genuine reply. Tom smooth. Already my game is improving. I'm going to heart eyes emoji. Where was this when I was in high school? The winky face is bold. We just met. I want a walk-through of our Friday night itinerary. Spell it out for me, Tom. Enter text, paste, easy. We're doing whatever gets me closer to you. Serious answers only. Uh-oh. Let's see what not to say. Cue the not safe for work response, please.
Spread those legs now. Oh, I'm not going to do it cuz I don't want you guys to win. Dinner, laughs, and possibly a little mischief. Tom, absolutely not. This is honestly how my regular conversations go from online dating. You're next. Good luck. Hi, I'm Steve and I'm here to find love. Pretty anti-AI but, you know, I'm curious about technology and want to find the limits of it. the name Steve for a dog. I'm from a big Italian family and I am a huge foodie. What is your favorite food? Your Move AI, let's uh let's see what it can do here. From flirty to formal, Your Move AI offers responses in different
tones as long as the tone starts with the letter F. So, the default is on flirty. I've always found a classic lasagna to be incredibly comforting. The layers of pasta, cheese, and sauce feel like a warm embrace. Absolutely not. All right, I got to move fast here. Feisty. Let me read the full message. Honestly, a perfectly spicy pepperoni pizza. Something about that heat always leaves me wanting more. Wow. I would add hot honey to balance out the spice. Have you ever experimented with other unconventional pizza toppings? I've tried pineapple, but can we talk about something other than pizza, Steven? I do like the way Steven talks. Demonstrates a thoughtful approach to flavor balancing. Okay, Steven. Keeping the
conversation going at all costs. She's typing already. Now, Steven, tell me. This is the make or break. She's still typing. Suspense is killing me. If you were to cook dinner for us, what would you make? What do you guys think? What should I try formal, feisty, funny? See, if I was using the rizz, it would probably make a joke about like my salami. All right, let's go feisty. I'd grill up something spicy and sweet just like you. Want to be my taste tester? Let's go for it. WOO! STEVEN'S GOT flirts on him, too.
Okay. Who has a grill in New York City? Is it like a George Foreman? Now, it's time for Lexi to send one of the guys packing. Between Tom and Steven, here's the problem. They're both very flirty, which I like, but I kind of wanted more direct answers. These abs, I don't know. The quality definitely not my style, so it feels a little disingenuous. Honestly, the most engaging was his with Rizz. Yeah, I thought the Rizz app was a lot more genuine than the other AI apps cuz they were just short. Tom, it's like he's just trying to get my pants. Steven had some great vocabulary. The flirting wasn't as smooth as Tom's.
Pretty realistic. I might use it in the future. After much serious deliberation, I've decided to move on with Ethan, Luke, and Tom. So, that means Steven, you are eliminated. Sorry, Steven. Best of luck, Luke. Don't let the machines win. You got it. Let's do a technology detox and see how these men are with their words. We are going to have them write me love letters. This is a lost art. So, first, I will write them a love letter with a pink envelope, of course. Seal it with a kiss. It's ready for them. Let's see what they say. Thank you. Dear bachelors, I'm a traditional girl who believes real connection starts with real communication.
Oh, thank god. She has very nice handwriting. And nothing says that more than a handwritten letter. So, I'm asking you to write me one. What are you looking for in a relationship that you haven't found yet? And what qualities do you look for in a long-term partner? Lexi. P.S. I'm left-handed if you can't tell. I as well. Let's go. Ethan scans Lexi's letter and copies it into Claude. Okay, so it's asking me to pick the overall tone. I'm going to go with thoughtful and sincere. Oh. Dear Lexi, your letter arrived like a breath of fresh air, and I mean that.
What you described, being known without having to constantly explain yourself, I've been chasing that, too. That ease, that quiet comfort of someone who just gets it. What I'm looking for, someone present, someone who means what they say and shows up when it counts. And for what it's worth, a girl who still believes in handwritten letters, that already tells me something worth paying attention to. Written with my left, Ethan. Wait, that was so good. I really like the way he answered this question. I mean, I can tell he's ready to meet someone and he's just really great with his words. Um I think that him and I are on the same page of what we're looking for. But if he's left-handed and that's his handwriting, girl,
what? Are you a doctor? Cuz I can't read any of that. All right. Luke won't be getting help from an AI wingman to write his love letter. So, what's his strategy? Trying to balance the right combination of creativity and sincerity. Making sure that my handwriting is legible, believe it or not. I want to see their handwriting. I want to know that they were sweating over that piece of paper with a pen in their hand writing to me and confessing their love. All right. If I had more time it'd be an iambic pentameter, but you know. Thank you, my good sir. Dear Lexi, this is Luke. My desire to date you is no fluke. I'm looking for a connection that is real, something we can forge over drinks or a meal. I'm
looking for humor, passion, and trust. In past relationships, these have been a bust. I want to take you to Omakase and a Broadway play. I want to spoil you while you wear pink all day. Gone are the days of superfluous flings. Returned have the days of queens and kings. And if you don't want to date, maybe we can be besties. Word on the street is you're pretty cool, Lexi. So, Luke wrote me a poem. Very creative, um but he spelled my name wrong, but it's fine. He spelled it IE, but I won't hold it against him because his note is very creative. I mean, he's no Doctor Seuss, um and you know, no romance poet, but he's giving me my Bridgerton fantasy, right?
Dearest gentle reader. But I feel like he might have looked this up on ChatGPT. Tom's next. He copies Lexi's letter into the Rizz app. These aren't very long. The NSFW does is even worse. Left hand stroking me off, please. The genuine one is a little better. I guess we'll give it a shot. I don't know. This is not a good letter. Rizz has no rizz. No, only for texting. Mr. Walt Whitman over here with the you know, with the rhyming. I think he's got me beat at least.
Tom, what are you doing to that envelope? I mean, if she sees you licking that letter, Tom, what she might There you go, sir. I have no germs. god. Oh. All right, our last one. Tom. Tom wrote uh an O and then he wrote another O that's a heart. Tom. Let's read your note. Tom. Dearest Lexi, all right. So, you want me to pour my heart out and impress a lefty? Challenge accepted. I'm looking for someone who matches my energy, loyal, passionate, and not afraid to argue over who steals the blanket.
Long-term, I want someone as ambitious about their dreams as I'll be about spoiling them. Your turn. How should a right-handed guy woo a left-handed queen? So, I'm a queen? Thank you. I like it. It's not as love, it's more like hey, challenge, you want to be mine? He talks about arguing over stealing the blanket. Which is cute. Tom started off the texting very flirty, and this is flirty as well, and I wanted a little more romance rather than flirt.
Um and I also think Tom wasn't really answering my question. He said, "How can I woo you?" Well, tell me what you would do. I'm not going to give you all the answers. After giving it some thought, I have decided to move forward with Ethan and Luke, which means Tom, you're eliminated. But thank you for the sweet letter. Yeah. Not shocked, honestly, guys. It's nice meeting you fine gentlemen. I'll redownload Tinder. For the final experiment, Lexi will call the remaining two bachelors on the phone. I am nervous to call with them. I think it's going to be weird hearing their voices. For this round, Ethan will use Link Job AI, an application designed to listen to conversations and provide real-time responses during remote job interviews.
But first, he feeds the app some info about himself. I act, I make content, I paint, I make music. I'm fun and outgoing. I'm very social. Once again, to be true to the experiment, Ethan must say exactly what the AI writes on screen. Hello. Hi. Uh-oh, Link Job is lagging. Hi Ethan. Hey. So glad we're finally connected. I know. How's your day going? It's going great. How's yours? My day has been awesome. I've been juggling a few different projects and just keeping the creative energy flowing. I like that you are busy and you keep yourself busy. That shows you have some ambition. Someone with a good work ethic.
I appreciate that. Having a strong drive is huge for me, especially in this industry. Sounds like uh we thrive in that same kind of high-energy creative environment. While we are on the phone, I do want to ask you a question. If we were a movie and you want to be the right guy, what would our movie be and why? That's such a great question. I think we would be a vibrant modern musical comedy. Musical comedy fits our energy because it's never boring and always moving. The La Land vibe just felt right, you know? If you were writing the script, what's the one scene we definitely have to include? We would have um a romance song, but we're not in
the same room, you know? Like I'm outside looking at the rain in the window and you know, you're like driving in your car or something, but we're singing about each other, of course, right? To make it comedy, I feel like we'd be wearing wigs or something. That's hilarious. The split-screen musical number in matching dramatic wigs is absolutely gold. It's the perfect blend of romance and comedy, honestly. If we're making musical parodies together, that's the scene that goes viral. Does this mean we're more towards a Spinal Tap meets the Notebook kind of vibe? Maybe. We can make it really serious at first, so the audience thinks it's going to be a true romance, and then we throw them for a curveball, like
Danny DeVito just appears, and they're like, "What is he doing here?" I think that would be great. Um but also, the romance, I feel like we should be like friends to lovers. That friends-to-lovers arc is the ultimate slow burn. It makes the payoff so much better because the chemistry is already there. I love the idea of tricking the audience. We start with this moody cinematic tension, so they think they're watching a prestige drama, and then boom. I love these creative juices we have flowing here. Well, I am going to have to let you go, but it was such a pleasure talking to you, Ethan. I'm glad you really liked the answers. All right. Bye, Ethan. Talk soon. Bye. I could tell I felt like he was a little
nervous. If anything, I think that the AI drove the conversation a specific uh narrow pathway. I really liked the ideas he had, too, how we would like sing, and the La Land was a great pitch. I would have picked a different movie if I was speaking from, you know, the dome in opposed to like AI. All right, let's see how Luke does. Here we go. She is calling me now. Hi. How are you? I'm good. I could tell you're a writer from the little poem you wrote me. Oh. Uh well, thank you. I mean, I assume that's a compliment. Yeah, no, no, the it wasn't a fluke, Luke. But, I want to hear more about you. Shoot. I was just at sea for 6 months cruising the Mediterranean and Caribbean. Where would
you take us on vacation for our first trip? Honestly, Japan would be the number one spot. It's one of the most expensive places to travel to, but I also really love sushi. And you know, you go during uh I think it's in the spring they have the cherry blossoms all over the place that are really uh that are really cool. Oh, that's a I've always wanted to go to Japan, actually. I do love sushi, and I heard it's beautiful there. Well, sounds like a plan. Where would you take me on a trip? Um let's see. I feel like we should go to the Grand Canyon. I feel like you would be someone that would like something like low-key nature cuz you seem a little more
quiet and reserved, um more opposite of me. Oh, I see. I do love warm weather, so Arizona sounds great. Grand Canyon is in Arizona. Uh no, I never have. Uh but it'd be awesome if we made a road trip out of it. I love driving. You do? I'm a terrible driver. Oh, well, then this would be perfect. You can do all the passengering, and I'll do all the driving. Oh, well, I'm the best passenger princess ever, I'll have you know, so get excited. Japan, Arizona, we're ready to go. It was great talking with you, Luke. Um we'll talk soon.
I think AI got this in the bag, I'm not going to lie. Unless it's she really likes the word vibe, then I think I won. And now it's time for Lexi to pick the guy she wants to date. Ethan's a lot more like me. Usually, I do go for guys like Luke who are more quiet. It's tough. I don't know what they look like, so I have to go based off of our texts, the letters. Looking through everything, I think I'm going to have to go with Ah! I'm nervous. My gut is telling me Ethan. How you GG, the robots are taking over, man. One small step for Ethan, one large step for AI. So, Luke, got any advice for Ethan?
Uh it's hard to say. At the beginning of this experiment, I would have said the best advice is to be yourself, but that didn't really uh pan out here. So. Okay, Lexi, time to meet Ethan. How do you feel? I feel confident in my decision, but I am nervous. Just like when you're online dating, meeting someone for the first time in person is always a little nerve-wracking. I imagine drumroll in my head. Hey! Hello. Hi. Hug it up. Hey. You look nice. Thank you. You as well. to meet you. to meet you as well. I was nervous to meet you in person.
I'm like, I'm not shy. Okay, so you told me a little bit about yourself. I did, but I have a confession. Okay. When you lie to people when you first meet them, they're never going to find out the truth. If you use AI, you're pretending to sort of be something or think something that you're not. My response is my answers to you were AI. It was generated with a computer. I can show you proof. I want to throw a fit, but I'm I'm on camera. You could scroll, honestly. Just go for it. Stop it.
Yeah. I'm sorry to deceive you like that. Yeah, wow. in my true nature, you know. It's the conversation, basically. It What? Okay, where are the other boys here? No, they all left. I'm I'm the only one here. I don't want to date a robot. But uh recorded me saying things, and then It picked up your audio through the phone via speaker. I know you're saying things, but I'm really upset with you. So, is this a deal-breaker, Lexi? He just put in AI. I'm not going to lie, I'm a little mad. Because I picked you. You didn't pick me. three other guys, I'm like, where are they? Three of us used AI. Really? The
person you picked between myself and him, yes, Luke. Luke? He was real. He wrote you a poem. And he said he wrote it with AI. And I made a joke that he wrote it with ChatGPT. Okay, also, were those things you said true in the letter? Like, are you looking for someone who's actually present? Or are you looking for just like a fun fling? Yes, I'm very present. I like for the other person that I am involved with to be present as well. What would you do for our first date? Where would you take me? We got a picnic, go to Central Park. Think we'd have a cooler, some ice.
Cooler, of course. Um mixers, blanket, and uh speaker. Yeah. I like that. Do you have any questions for me? Let's see. Have How many trust falls have you done in your lifetime? Trust falls? Yes. I really haven't done one. Okay, you ready? Let's do this. I'm nervous. I'm still finding it hard to trust you. But I'm going to try. Let go. Okay, ready? Yes. There you go. Ooh. Very beautiful. That was amazing. Yeah. I felt so good. Okay. I think want to give Ethan a chance. I like your energy. We have a lot in common. Um I think you're cute. It's a date.
Lexi and Ethan have not gone on a date yet. However, Lexi and Luke have. I guess humanity does have a chance after all.
