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Tinder users at SXSW are falling in love with an A.I.

Ava, shown in her profile photo on Tinder, is not who she appears to be.
Image Credit: AdWeek

Take a look at this photo. Cute, right?

That’s the profile photo for an ostensibly 25-year-old female named Ava on Tinder, a popular dating app.

The profile has been popping up for Tinder users at SXSW this week. But after swiping right and making a connection with Ava, the conversation takes a strange turn, according to a post in AdWeek.

A conversation between "Ava" and Brock, a real human.

Above: A conversation between “Ava” and Brock, a real human.

Image Credit: AdWeek

That’s right — Ava appears to be an A.I., or if not an actual artificial intelligence, at least a decent chat bot. The conversation concludes by directing people to Ava’s Instagram profile, @MeetAva, which is a promotional for an upcoming movie called Ex Machina, whose site it links to — and whose starring actress is actually the face of “Ava.” The movie comes out April 10, and there was a screening of it last night at SXSW.

It’s a pretty clever way to market a movie about A.I., but it’s not reaching a ton of people. @MeetAva only has 98 followers. On the other hand, the campaign scored a writeup in AdWeek — and now VentureBeat.

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