How 4 people turned their dating photos AI to see if they'd get more matches!
Experiment Intro 🧪
Let's take a journey into the digital landscape of love. Our mission? To delve into the trending world of AI photography and its influence on dating app interactions. Our Try it on team, Adriana and Abby, embarked on this venture, curious to uncover whether AI-generated images could, indeed, stir up interest in a user's profile. More than just a simple experiment, we sought to evoke genuine responses and discern whether the origin of the images - AI or human - truly mattered.
Imagine the possibilities if users could remain indifferent to the source of the images on a profile. It could revolutionize the dating game for those who shy away from the camera or who lack the quintessential, high-quality photographs often seen on dating profiles.
To bring this experiment to life, we enlisted the help of four unique content creators from around the world: Carmen 🇪🇸, Dulce 🇦🇷, Rogue 🇨🇦 and Ryan 🇺🇸! Each bringing their vibrant personalities to Hinge and Tinder, carefully curated their profiles with either a full AI profile or an even mix of AI-generated and regular photos.
Intrigued? Let's jump into the details and findings of this AI experiment!
Meet Our Dating Participants 💘
1. Carmen from Spain 🇪🇸
Findings 🤓
Carmen set up curated a mix of AI-generated and regular photos of herself on Hinge, highlighting her modeling background. Within less than 3 hours, she got 50+ likes, with an equal distribution between AI and regular photos 🤓 Carmen reported that unlike her usual profile that has only traditional selfies “the likes went up considerably and more than 100 guys asked me on a date 💐”. The comment that made her giggle the most? "Beautiful brown-eyed angel save me” left on one of her AI pics.
Among her AI dating photos, the one of her in a pink outfit emerged as a very clear favorite. Maybe she found her new favourite color? Either way, Carmen ended up getting plenty of date invitations! She decided to run the experiment for 3 more days, during which her likes skyrocketed to an even higher 500!
99.9% of people were convinced that her AI-generated headshots were real with the exception of one guy who guessed it right and after Carmen revealed it was indeed AI he could not care less and proceed to chat.
Verdict ⚖️ ⚖️ Including AI photos along with regular selfies, lead to a significant spike in likes and matches.
⚖️ AI or not AI, use it confidently to give yourself a boost because ultimately people won’t care about the way the photo was created as long as it actually looks like you.
2. Dulce from Argentina 🇦🇷
Findings 🤓
Dulce created two Tinder accounts - one featuring six camera photos of herself and the other six Try it on AI photos. Within the first hour the account with camera pics received an impressive 84 likes. In contrast, her AI picture profile garnered only 23 likes during the same time frame. However, upon checking both profiles again after a few more hours, both had accumulated over 99+ likes, showing an equalizing effect over time.
Verdict ⚖️ ⚖️ AI and non-AI got the same amount of matches.
⚖️ Tinder users were unable to distinguish between AI-generated and regular profiles, demonstrating that the inclusion of AI-generated headshots did not affect user engagement.
3. Rogue from Canada
Findings 🤓 Rogue conducted an experiment by using three AI-generated headshots and three regular photographs to assemble a single Hinge profile, aiming to gauge the impact of AI headshots on his match rate. After running this new profile he amassed over 50 matches in less than 24hrs.
He tallied up the like count and found that his regular photos garnered 10% more likes vs AI generated ones. This caught him off guard though, as he expected the AI pics to get way less likes as he personally felt that his regular selfies were better. As the saying goes, beauty is in the eye of the beholder!
Verdict ⚖️ ⚖️ Regular selfies got 10% more likes! His selfies show more skin vs AI pics though.
⚖️ This unexpected outcome challenges the assumption that AI-enhanced images invariably lead to better outcomes in online dating. However, the requirement for favourable matching, AI or not AI, is having great portraits to begin with.
4. Ryan from Las Vegas Nevada
Findings 🤓 Ryan set up two Tinder profiles: one featuring his "Dating" Style AI Headshots and the other showcasing his regular selfies. After letting both accounts run for a few days, he observed that his AI photo profile received overall an incredible 49% more likes compared to his regular selfies.
Not a single soul recognized that his headshots were AI-generated, and an overwhelming amount of people commented on his awesome portraits. To the point where one comment on his AI profile even suggested that photography might be one of his hobbies!
Verdict ⚖️ ⚖️ AI pics got more likes & matches.
⚖️ Nobody was able to tell Ryan was using AI photos and even complimented him on his photography skills.
Watch Their Full Videos!
Experiment Conclusion 💘
Let's get the first most obvious fact out of the way - 99.99% of matches had no idea that any of the photos were AI. Out of 500+ matches only 1 person guessed it, and even then when asked whether he cared... he didn't as long as the person's likeness was actually correct.
Now for the main question on whether AI gets you more matches? If your selfie game isn't strong it will 100 % help you get more matches. And if you have great photos to start with, it will get you exactly the same amount of matches. And if your selfies are more provocative then expect your more laid back AI photos might not be needed in the first place.
This qualitative, and might we add extremely fun, experiment showed us that the dating algorithms favour good quality photos, so whether you are using AI or very well captured camera pics, you’ll be in a good standing.
And based on the conversations we’ve had with our participants and the fact that 19% of our Try it on user base already use their AI photos for dating, we can safely say that perceptions of authenticity are evolving, and at the end of the day what truly matters is whether the person people are meeting is the same one they saw and talked to online. So go ahead and use AI, and just make sure it represents you well.
With all our love (for AI), we wish you the most success in dating!