Machines have finally passed the Turing Test, the mid-century thought experiment designed to see if a computer could fool us into thinking it was human. In an evaluation last year, 73% of respondents thought they’d just had a five-minute conversation with a real person when they had been talking to an artificial-intelligence model.

Since then, AI systems have evolved so quickly they are now fooling humans even in the emotion-laden world of online dating, and not just for five minutes. In November, the Hong Kong-based startup Humanity Protocol demonstrated this vulnerability with a small stunt in Lisbon. They deployed four AI-powered profiles on Tinder that engaged in deep, simultaneous conversations with hundreds of users — and eventually persuaded 40 of them to show up for a dinner date at the same restaurant at the same time.

© Bloomberg