Flirting used to be a human skill, for better and worse. Now you can finesse a prompt in ChatGPT and call it “confidence.”
A new survey from matchmaking company Arrows asked 1,008 U.S. singles in February 2026 how they use tools like ChatGPT in their love lives, and the results feel like a perfect snapshot of where we are now. People want honesty, but people also want to win.
More than half of singles surveyed, 54 percent, said they’ve used AI for some part of dating, whether that means polishing a profile, drafting messages, or figuring out what to say next. The payoff seems like it’s working. AI users reported 107 percent more first dates over the past year than non-users, 2.9 versus 1.4. If you’ve been stuck in the “talk for three days, never meet” loop, that number makes you think.
Then comes the part where everyone clutches their pearls and their phone at the same time. Fifty-eight percent said using AI for dating conversations or profiles counts as “digital catfishing,” meaning you’re presenting a version of yourself that isn’t fully real. One in five people said they’ve ghosted someone because they suspected AI was involved. That’s bleak, because most people already assume they’re being played. Now it comes with a new fear: wondering who’s flirting, them or the tool they’re using.
People Are (Sadly) Kind of Into the AI Catfish
It gets funnier, and a bit darker, with the blind test. When singles looked at bios without knowing who wrote them, they were 50 percent more likely to show interest in AI-generated profiles than human ones, 36 percent versus 24 percent. So, we like the copy. We just don’t like what it suggests about the person using it. That’s like preferring a meal, then getting mad that someone used seasoning.
The real issue is trust, and people can sense when they’re being managed. Kinsey Institute researcher Justin Garcia said in a WIRED interview, “The whole point of early dating is trying to establish trust, so if I have a sense that you are not really you, that undermines it right away.” He also gave the line that should be printed on every dating app’s terms of service. “AI is a supplement, and at some point you need a real meal.”
AI can help you start the conversation. It can’t carry the conversation, and it definitely can’t carry you through the real part, face-to-face.
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