A studio in China used Claude to build over 20 dating apps featuring more than 4,700 AI personas that pretended to be real people. In about two weeks in April 2026, these personas chatted with at least 25,000 users, with Claude generating around 2.36 million messages. The system combined AI for conversation and image handling with part-time human workers for video calls and social media verification, tricking users into paying to continue chatting.