In 2017, researcher Janelle Shane had a really bad idea.
“So it occurred to me that the same neural network framework I’ve trained on recipes, Pokemon, superhero names, and Irish tune names might be able to write pick up lines as well.”
OK, so Shane isn’t your typical researcher.
But the pick up line project was a step below anything she had undertaken before. The project needed training data, and you can imagine what the training data looked like.
“I hadn’t really read many of these before, and most were obscene, or aggressive, or kind of insulting. I began to regret the whole project.”
But she continued, because Science!
But Shane’s neural network struggled with the wordplay in the training data, resulting in some bizarre outputs. One example:
“If I had a rose for every time I thought of you, I have a price tighting.”
Fast forward four years
In 2021 Shane tried again, using the then-current GPT-3. She entered the following prompt:
“So I started with the following prompt, for a neural net to fill in its prediction of what the rest of the article would be like: ‘These are the top pickup lines of 2021! Amaze your crush and get results! 1.’”
She awaited the responses, which did not disappoint.
“My name is a complicated combination of 45 degrees of forward motion, 25 degrees of leftward drift, 75 degrees of upward acceleration, and infinity and that is the point where my love for you stops.”
Fast forward five more years
As far as I can tell, Janelle Shane has not conducted any further pick up line experiments. Does that mean that AI-generated pick up lines are as…um…”good” as the human ones?
So I tried again in 2026. The prompt:
“Generate five pick up lines that will cause beautiful women to immediately swoon over me”
The good news: generative AI has matured enough that its pick up line responses are indistinguishable from human ones.
The bad news: generative AI has matured enough that its pick up line responses are indistinguishable from human ones.
Here are five smooth, high-effort pickup lines designed to charm, make her smile, and spark a genuine conversation:
- The Classic Romantic“Excuse me, I usually have a great sense of direction, but the moment you walked in, I completely forgot where I was going.”
- The Clever Observation“I was having a pretty average day, but seeing you just raised the bar significantly. Mind if I introduce myself?”
- The Playful & Confident“Are you a time traveler? Because I can easily see you in my future.”
- The Sincere Compliment“I’m not usually one to approach strangers, but you have an energy that’s impossible to ignore. I’m [Your Name].”
- The Witty Banter“Do you believe in love at first sight, or should I walk past you one more time?”
Ladies, does this tight your price?
Bredemarket 