Robots Have Taken Over Tinder at SXSW

That was a low blow, viral advertisers. 

Ava, a beguiling 25-year-old Tinder user, has been disappointing scores of eager online suitors at this year’s South By Southwest.

As AdWeek reported, users who swiped right and started a conversation with “Ava” eventually realized that she wasn’t who she appeared to be. Her profile photo was of the beautiful Swedish actress, Alicia Vikander; the woman they’d been flirting with was actually a bot created to promote her upcoming movie, Ex Machina (it premiered at the festival on Saturday). Catfishing in the name of capitalism—it was bound to happen sooner or later.