A man who used ChatGPT to go on hundreds of dates has found love and is engaged with a woman he met during his AI dating spree.
Alexandr Zhadan, 23, matched with 5,000 women on Tinder and used a modified version of the AI software to whittle those down to a shortlist of 100 who he then dated.
He told DailyMail.com: ‘I broke up with my ex, and I wanted to find a new relationship, and I felt a bit exhausted about the idea of just swiping people on Tinder, and finding out that this is not the right person for me.
‘I was talking about this with my friends, and one of them mentioned the idea of GPT, and how it could optimize finding dates. And it became a pet project.’
Not only did the app remove the constant need to swipe, the technology had fully fledged conversations with the women, scheduled dates and kept a detailed calendar for him – saving him valuable time and effort. It also served as a dating coach – telling him what to say if he was stumped or giving him ice breakers and jokes.
It was during this process that the Moscow-based software developer met his fiancee, Karina, who he is now set to marry later this year.
Zhadan believes that AI technology could become a big part of dating in the future: there are already multiple apps such as ‘rizz assistants’ and ‘AI wingmen’ in app stores, and he has been contacted by a large company to turn his idea into a product.
He used a version of OpenAI’s ChatGPT to message women on Tinder, using the software to schedule dates, chat with potential dates and offer advice.
He said: ‘ChatGPT could interact with potential dates, using a database of information about me, like where I studied.
‘It also helped me have a calendar, and helped me with a bot that suggested what to say. If I didn’t like it, I would write it myself.’
The first version was, he admits, ‘a bit robotic’ – with mistakes such as suggesting that he and a date might go for a ‘long walk in the woods’ for a first date, which creeped a few of his dates out.
As Open AI’s GPT software updated from GPT-2 to GPT-3 to GPT-4, ‘it worked better’, he told DailyMail.com.
He said: ‘When I really got it up and running, it was Spring last year, and I was testing it out a lot. I had a lot of dates – it’s hard to count how many, but in the process, I would say I went on more than 100 dates.
Zhadan used filters to cut out women who weren’t right for him (including asking GPT to block women with Zodiac signs in their profile), and he was ruthless in cutting out women who didn’t ‘work’.
He said: ‘I didn’t want to waste my time. After I realise that the person wasn’t right, I must stop.
When he met Karina Vyalshakaeva he realized rapidly that she was ‘the one’ – but ChatGPT was still on board as an advisor.
Zhadan said: ‘At this moment, I realized I had found ‘the one’ and I used ChatGPT as an advisor, and it was pretty good.
‘It would review our Telegram chats, and give me advice that would improve our relationship, like “Tell her more about your hobbies” or just to go to sleep earlier!’
After about a year of dating, Zhadan confessed to Karina that he had been getting help from ChatGPT.
He said: ‘I told her that I had been getting help from an AI after a year. Her first reaction was that she was shocked – and wanted to know how it worked. After a while, she realized how it helped me to communicate and helped our relationship.’
He said: ‘I stopped using ChatGPT because I got everything I wanted. Now I really understand a lot about Karina – you might use AI to make a draft, or that first step, but then it becomes a habit. I can be myself with Karina, and she can understand me and I her. And at that point, AI is not good for us.
‘I proposed to Karina and and we plan to get married in August, so that’s great.’
Zhadan believes that AI dating apps could appeal to a wide audience, offering advice on how to do things ‘faster and better’.
He said that in the wake of his AI-powered romance, he has been contacted by large companies with a view to commercialising his idea.
He said: ‘I think this technology could become mainstream!’
