ChatGPT test leaves people mortified as 70% fall for bot's fake love letter

09 February 2023 , 16:28

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If you receive a love letter this Valentine's Day, it may have been written by ChatGPT (Stock Image) (Image: Getty Images)

Valentine's Day is the time of year when you can get soppy with your partner and it won't be too cringe-worthy. You can write love notes, and poems, buy thoughtful gifts, or just tell them how much you adore them and couldn't live without them.

However, it turns out that ChatGPT can write love letters too, so McAfee, a global leader in online protection, has released research to warn of the dangers this could pose - but also the benefits Artificial Intelligence (AI) could have for you this Valentine's Day.

With AI infiltrating every aspect of our daily lives, a shocking 71 percent of Brits fell for a ChatGPT love letter when comparing it with one written by a real person.

Valentine's Day is all about cringe - but can you tell if these words are real? (stock photo) (Getty Images)

A third of young singles have said that they are planning to use AI to boost their dating profiles to impress people., but this sparks concern when 40 percent of adults have been catfished, or know someone who has.

McAfee's 'Modern Love' research report surveyed 5,000 people across nine countries to discover how AI and the internet are changing love and relationships.

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A whopping 71 percent of people said that they preferred a machine-generated love note in the style of e.e. cummings when compared to his original 1952 poem 'I Carry Your Heart With Me'.

The ChatGPT version reads:

"loved you once loved you still always have always will your smile like sun on my face warmth in my heart in every embrace

"i hold you close never to part in love forever heart to heart your eyes like stars in the midnight sky i'm lost in them as time goes by

"and though the world may come undone my love for you shall forever run."

While the original reads:

"carry your heart with me (i carry it in my heart) i am never without it (anywhere i go you go, my dear; and whatever is done by only me is your doing, my darling)

"i fear no fate (for you are my fate, my sweet) i want no world (for beautiful you are my world, my true) and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant and whatever a sun will always sing is you."

Over 70% of people preferred the ChatGPT version of the poem to the original (Stock Image) (Getty Images)

Shockingly, more people found the AI-generated one more poetic. Using an AI tool such as ChatGPT to write a romantic missive could be a risky tactic, though, with 58 percent of UK respondents agreeing they'd be offended if they found out the note they received on the most romantic day of the year had been produced by a machine.

Catfish, or people who pretend to be someone they're not online, can use AI to supplement their romance scams, keeping several dating profiles running at once.

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ChatGPT can alter the tone of messages to dial up the charm which, as McAfee's research has proven, results in earnest-sounding professions of love that could convince someone to share personal information or money.

Recently, a student even used the controversial bot ChatGPT to write one of his university essays - and it passed with a 2.2.

Vonny Gamot, Head of EMEA at McAfee, said: "With the rise in popularity of AI, particularly tools such as ChatGPT that anybody with a web browser can access, the chances of receiving machine-generated information are on the rise.

"While some AI uses case may be innocent enough, we know cybercriminals also use AI to scale malicious activity. With Valentine's Day just around the corner, it's important to look out for tell-tale signs of malicious AI activity - like the use of short sentences and repetition of words, combined with any suspicious asks for money or information.

"To find a true match, love-seekers should stay vigilant and use security solutions that can help safeguard their privacy and identity and protect them from clicking on malicious links a scammer might send."

It's also important to have a video call with any matches on dating websites, rather than sending your contact details right away, and always take the relationship slowly. It's also recommended that you do a reverse image search on Google to ascertain that you're speaking to someone legitimate.

Will you be using AI to write to the one you love this Valentine's Day? Let us know in the comments.

Danielle Kate Wroe