Tinder Users Tricked By ‘Ex Machina’ Bot At SXSW: Ava Played ‘Hard’


Tinder users tricked by a promotional stunt at South by Southwest over the weekend are not happy. The stunt is now making headlines. According to Jezebel, the film, Ex Machina, created a profile on the Tinder app for the AI character featured in the film. Some lucky Tinder users thought they had scored big when they were hooked up with the 25-year-old Ava, but some quickly learned that Ava was not a real 25-year-old beauty, but a chat bot.

However, some users of the Tinder service did not figure out the ploy so quickly. One user felt like Ava “toyed with [his] emotions so hard.” Brock shared his experience and the conversation he had with Ava with Ad Week.

“When he opened up Ava’s Instagram, it became clear something was amiss. There was one photo and one video, both promoting Ex Machina, a sci-fi film that just happened to be premiering Saturday night here in Austin. The link in her bio went to the film’s website. And it turns out the woman in the photos is Swedish actress Alicia Vikander, who plays an artificial intelligence in the movie. It’s pretty brilliant in the way it ties into the movie. Only in retrospect do you realize that Ava’s questions are about a robot wanting to know what it’s like to be human.”

Ad Week called the move by the film “spammy” and “invasive.” However, some might call the move a great way to promote the film. A source spoke to Tech Crunch about the promotional stunt, and it revealed that the profile was only live for a short time. It has now been removed from the Tinder app.

“It was done tied to the premiere of the film and only up for a short time. Some people who matched with Ava won prizes including tickets to the premiere.”

Some have taken to social media to praise the promotional campaign since news of it went viral.

So far, the film has managed to bring in just under $4 million in the U.K., but Entertainment Wise reported that the Ex Machina film has received more attention on this side of the Atlantic. It will arrive in U.S. on April 10, and it is likely the film will do better here. You can see Ava in action in the trailer for the film below.

Online dating is becoming more and more common, and apps like Tinder are helping singles meet and mingle with others online before meeting in person. However, online dating does have its dangers. One really has no idea who is on the other end.

MTV has its own series to highlight the pitfalls of dating someone you have only met via the Internet. Catfish has shown a number of people that have found out that the other person they are talking to is not the person they thought they were.

This Ava experiment is a catfish on a smaller scale, but some have taken their anger to a completely new level when they find out that they have been duped by someone they met online.

According to a previous Inquisitr report, one man attacked the woman he met because she looked nothing like her online photo on the WeChat app. He spent thousands on a flight to meet her, and he hoped to meet his “goddess.” That did not happen, and he punched her in the face because of it.

“I knew exactly what she looked like as the image of her face was ingrained in my memory. So when this woman came and sat down next to me I was completely shocked. This woman had a fatter face and acne, completely unlike the woman in the photo.”

The woman did not press charges against the man, and the man has said that he will never try online dating again.

What do you think of this film’s promotional stunt on Tinder? Have you tried online dating? Have you been duped?

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