Goose, a New Gay Dating App, Appears to Be a Psyop

The Instagram Close Friends Story for @miles.sumrall shows an affable-looking guy with curly dark hair and an expertly groomed mustache beaming as he floats on the water. “You’re receiving this because you’re exactly the type of person we’re building this for,” the caption reads, accompanied by a code for an invite to a “members only community.”

The link leads to a login for Goose, a dating and friendship app for gay men with the slogan “for the boys,” which allows users to “meet guys through the life you already have,” according to its website.

The problem is that @miles.sumrall does not appear to be real. Neither does @danielmmulugeta, the cute dark-haired influencer who shared the above caption, with the exact same verbiage, on his Close Friends’ Stories. Both accounts were created in May 2026 and have fewer than 10 posts as well as a high following-to-follower ratio. And both of their Instagram avatars were determined with greater than 90 percent confidence to be AI-generated, according to the AI Image Detector software. A SynthID check on Google Gemini, which can help identify AI-generated images, also found that “most or all of” Miles’ and Daniel’s profile photos were created using Google AI.

Created by the model-influencer Derek Chadwick, as well as former BeReal growth and community manager David Aliagas, Goose positions itself as a Grindr alternative for gay men who want to build lasting relationships. At the time that it was announced, many scoffed at the idea that the app would be used for anything other than finding casual hookups. “Goose is basically Pokémon Ho,” one X user joked.

Still, user interest was apparently high enough that when the app launched last Thursday, it rose to #4 in the App Store’s free lifestyle downloads category, and is now ranked 33rd in lifestyle app downloads globally. And promotional content by creators like @miles.sumrall likely played a role in driving so many to download the app.

Miles and Daniel appeared in screengrabs shared on X by user @pspthe2nd, whose post alleged that the app “use[s] AI models to promote fake interest #goose.” But both of the accounts appear to be part of a much larger network of comely, seemingly AI-generated male influencers promoting the app, either by reaching out to gay men via DM or adding them to their Close Friends Stories.

Ryan Cheam, an account executive in marketing and public relations, says he first noticed a strange new Instagram account belonging to someone named @alistaircrombbie about a week ago. His bio says he works in PR at a well-known art gallery, so, Cheam tells WIRED, “I thought he was just a normal gay guy.” He became suspicious, however, after Alistair DMed him inviting him to join a “curated network of guys” at Goose, sending him an invite code. A SynthID check found that “most or all” of Alistair’s profile photo was generated using Google AI.

In addition to Miles, Alistair, and Daniel, WIRED was able to identify more than two dozen similar accounts, all of which were created in May or June 2026 and featured just a few posts—a typical indication of inauthentic accounts. Many of the accounts also frequently comment on each other’s photos, including the same heart and fire emojis.

Often, the accounts followed potential members and added them to their Close Friends Stories, but sometimes they directly DMed them to encourage them to sign up, as was the case with Dalton Bauer, who works in marketing and received a DM from a user named @lucalepkowski. “Hey! Okay this might feel random but felt you’d be interested :),” the message begins before inviting Bauer to the Goose community, using language identical to that of the one Cheam received from Alistair.

Bauer was less than flattered by the invite: it was the third such DM he’d received this week, using the exact same language, from an account that was brand-new. “This is the first time I’ve seen this on Instagram, and at this scale,” he tells WIRED. “I think someone needs to shed light on this as it’s shady and deceiving.”

Like the other accounts linked to the Goose invites, the @lucalepkowski account was created in May 2026. An analysis using the AI Image Detector software found that the profile image—a photo of a college-aged man in khaki shorts on a beach, sipping from a large water bottle—was 80 percent likely to have been artificially generated. Further analysis using Google Gemini also determined that at least part of Luca’s profile photo “was edited or generated with Google AI.”

Chadwick did not respond to multiple requests for comment, nor did anyone else from Goose. But on his Instagram Stories, cofounder Aliagas appears to have advertised multiple job listings for “ambassadors” to help manage various unspecified social media accounts.

The caption of an Instagram story Aliagas posted six weeks ago reads: “Need some help w my new app and you know I always give priority access to these opportunities to my OGs here :)” He listed the details for the “ambassador role,” requiring that they help manage three Instagram accounts four hours a day for two-plus months, with rates ranging from $1,800 to $2,100 a month. “Familiarity with gay culture is a big +. Time to monetize ur traumas :),” Aliagas wrote before signing off with, “And btw, still buying finstas [fake Instagram accounts] for $100 :).”

Aliagas posted another call for applicants for an “ambassador role” for his “new app” three weeks ago, this time asking for a three-month commitment. “We are going big :-),” he wrote. Both Stories are still included in his Instagram Story highlights, under the title “AMBASSADORS.”

It’s not unusual for brands and developers to surreptitiously use AI-generated influencers to promote their products. A recent Guardian investigation quoted a former celebrity manager who now creates such accounts, who estimated that “40 percent to 60 percent of the content out there from some of the big brands” is artificially generated, most of which is not publicly identified as such.

That’s not the same thing, however, as saying such content is aboveboard, says Rob Freund, an advertising and ecommerce attorney. The US Federal Trade Commission has guidelines prohibiting deceptive advertising, such as brands using AI to impersonate real individuals. New York also recently enacted a law requiring that advertisers disclose if their content is AI-generated, and companies face an initial $1,000 fine if they fail to do so.

“If you are creating fake accounts for people who promote a product and explicitly creating a bunch of fake accounts that look like they are users of a product or a service to drive attention or sales to that product or service, that activity is very obviously unlawful under FTC guidelines,” says Freund, stressing this is still the case regardless of whether the app is free. An FTC spokesperson declined to respond to questions from WIRED, saying it “cannot comment on a specific company’s practices.”

According to its content guidelines, Meta, which owns Instagram and declined to comment for this story, requires users to label their content as artificially generated and will take down posts that are not correctly identified as such. But the private nature of this specific marketing campaign in DMs and Close Friends Stories may make it more difficult for the platform to regulate. And as WIRED previously reported, incorrectly labeled AI-generated content often escapes detection, allowing users to believe that accounts that are most likely fake, such as @miles.sumrall’s and @lucalepkowski’s, are the real deal.

Some people, however, clearly aren’t falling for it. “On one hand I’m flattered that I’m their target audience,” Cheam tells WIRED. “But the need to essentially bait gay guys into signing up feels really sketchy.”