According to McAfee, a recent survey found that over 26% of people have been approached by an AI chatbot posing as a real person on a dating app or social media.
“I ignored my gut feeling… I sent him $1,200. Then he disappeared,” One survey respondent, Maggie K., told McAfee in February. “When I reported the scam, the police told me his images were AI-generated. He wasn’t even a real person. That was the scariest part – I had trusted someone who never even existed.”
It’s a concern that spurred the creation of Zepeel — a dating app that promotes real-time video chatting in lieu of direct messages.
When it first launched over a decade ago, it was released to little fanfare, as bigger names like Bumble, Hinge, and Tinder dominated the dating scene.
“Online daters are looking for innovative new ways to meet people without putting themselves or their personal identities at risk,” Shannon Toshack, a public relations manager at Zepeel, said in 2013.
“Zepeel essentially makes it impossible for you to claim to be someone else, ensuring there is legitimacy to whom you are talking to.”
Toshack’s words proved to be eerily prescient 12 years later.
On April 25, Zepeel tried to launch into the public consciousness again, this time with a bold new advertising campaign: “If you’re ugly, be ugly.”
The digital billboard campaign, which popped up in New York City and Toronto, tried to break through to people with a new message: practicing radical self-acceptance for the sake of authenticity in the dating world.
“Forget six-pack abs, chiseled jawlines, and perfectly stenciled brows — Zepeel wants the real you,” Anthony Macri, who spearheaded the campaign, said in a recent press release. “And by ‘real’ we mean the unapologetically imperfect versions of ourselves we’ve been hiding behind filters.”
“We’re tired of everyone sugarcoating things and pretending to be perfect on dating apps,” Macri added. “We want real people to feel celebrated, not swiped past.”
Macri explained that Zepeel uses AI-powered face recognition software to verify users’ appearances to eliminate potential bots and catfish.
If users post photos or videos with filters or Photoshopped editing, the app will flag the offense and immediately prompt them to update their profile or “start fresh.”
“Everyone’s face has unique dimensions,” Macri said. “From your forehead to your nose, your chin to your cheeks, enabling the app to guarantee user’s profile photos match their appearance IRL. Even minor facial changes are detected, preventing singles from using outdated, unrealistic photos, and ensuring a truer-to-life experience.“
“This is about bringing honesty back to online dating, especially when it comes to appearance,” Macri said. “In a world of overly edited photos, being authentic is the best filter.”
Header image via Zepeel
