ChatGPT could be writing a lot of Valentine’s Day cards this year

There's a good chance your Valentine's Day card this year will be written with a little help from ChatGPT.

ChatGPT, the artificial intelligence chatbot, is basically inescapable at the moment. Now, this takeover has gotten to the point where it's seeping into our collective love lives. Tinder users already began enlisting the platform to write messages to potential matches. New data suggests people will be using AI chatbots like ChatGPT to craft the ideal Valentine's Day note.

Research from McAfee polled 5,100 individuals about their romantic lives. Amongst the discoveries comes the revelation that 42 percent of men surveyed in the United States said they will be using AI to write Valentine's messages this year. Less than one-fifth of women said they would do so.

Personal motives vary in the survey results. Some want to use ChatGPT out of laziness, others out of apprehension. 32 percent said that the tool would help them feel more confident; 20 percent said it would enhance efficiency and that they simply don't have the time to do it themselves. In fact, the survey showed that 10 percent of people said: "I don’t believe my love interest or partner would know and it would be quick and easy."

Meanwhile, 24 percent say they don't know what their partner would want to hear and, therefore, something like ChatGPT could take that stress away.

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Perhaps more alarmingly (if that's possible), many of those polled weren't able to tell whether a love note was the work of a human or ChatGPT. 37 percent of respondents said there was no clear way to distinguish this; 39 percent incorrectly guessed that an AI-written love note was penned by a human.

Digital culture has already changed the landscape of dating, with the influx of apps, etiquette, and the ensuing new ground to navigate online. With AI, there's potential for even more technologically-driven changes when it comes to love and romance.

This also isn't the first time AI-powered tools have swooped in for the Hallmark-occasion that is already Valentine's Day. In 2021, CopyAI, an AI copywriting assistant, launched a free Valentine's Day card generator, guaranteeing users could "type a sentence about your relationship and get a Valentine's Day card that your significant other will love."

Still, despite the proven demand for AI tools like ChatGPT for this purpose, people aren't thrilled at the prospect of receiving an AI Valentine's Day card. Somewhat unsurprisingly, 50 percent of McAfee survey respondents agreed or strongly agreed with the statement: "I would be hurt or offended if I found out my Valentine’s message was written by a machine / Artificial Intelligence."

That may seem contradictory, given the amount of people set to use it for this purpose anyway. All of the data just reflects a new reality: that AI is being leaned on for creative assistance in unexpected ways, even if that means people will receive apparently genuinely declarations of love courtesy of a chatbot. It could be worth giving your card an extra scan next week.