SXSW is a strange world of excess and possibility. There's all-branded everything, talk of flying cars, and drunk people all in one place basking in the sensual allure of the Texas sun. Revelers looking for love (or whatever) at SXSW might turn to Tinder, and this weekend, there's a chance they matched with a robot.
One of Adweek's staff members was swiping through Tinder at SXSW when he matched with Ava, a seemingly normal 25-year-old who turned out to be the love of exactly no one's life. Ava was a Tinder bot created to promote Alex Garland's sci-fi thriller Ex Machina, which premiered yesterday at SXSW. You can read their conversation below:
The exchange is a little suspicious. Ava uses punctuation and capitalization like a middle school teacher with tenure. And she asks questions like she's spent the past month in the woods discovering her soul. But Adweek guy was captivated.
When you follow the handle to Ava's Instagram account, there are only two posts: an ad for the Ex Machina premiere and a short clip from the movie. The photos of Ava on Tinder are actually of the Swedish actress Alicia Vikander, who plays a gynoid in the film.
It's unclear if the scheme actually enticed anyone to go see Ex Machina — the Instagram account only has 127 followers right now. But who would want to follow the Instagram posts of robot who just duped them on Tinder?