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Dear Tulsa Bae,
People are using face tuning software on dating-app pictures, and the slow fall into AI is setting our standards on “attractiveness.” What do you do when it turns out the person you’re meeting for a date used facetuning, and the meeting IRL is much different? Do you talk about AI on your first date? Do you let it ride and judge them silently? Run for the hills? Feel encouraged because this person obviously cares about their online image?
Yours,
Sly Robot
Hi Sly Robot,
It sounds like you’re wrestling with two related issues. First is this use of AI facetuning, which, to me, is good ol’ fashioned catfishing, and the second is: how do we talk about the ways AI is rapidly infiltrating every corner of our lives and modern dating, from profile photos to entire conversations?
People have been manipulating their online dating photos for as long as online dating has been around. Filters, angles, and hiding parts of one’s face are nothing new, and that makes sense. There’s real value in putting your best foot (or face) forward with photos that highlight your most attractive qualities while still looking like you.