A network of artificial Instagram accounts is pushing Goose, a new dating and friendship app for gay men. The campaign uses AI-generated influencers, sparking debate over transparency and deceptive marketing tactics.
Instagram users have recently encountered a wave of seemingly friendly male influencers promoting Goose, a dating and friendship app for gay men. Accounts like @miles.sumrall and @danielmmulugeta, both created in May 2026, have been sharing personalized invite codes and messages through Close Friends Stories and direct messages. Their posts, featuring cheerful avatars and identical captions, direct recipients to join Goose’s “members only community.”
However, investigations using AI Image Detector software and Google Gemini’s SynthID tool revealed that the profile photos for these accounts are almost certainly AI-generated. Both @miles.sumrall and @danielmmulugeta’s images were found to be created with Google AI, with confidence levels exceeding 90 percent. The accounts have minimal posts and unusually high following-to-follower ratios, classic signs of inauthentic profiles.
Goose, co-founded by model-influencer Derek Chadwick and former BeReal growth manager David Aliagas, positions itself as a relationship-focused alternative to Grindr. Despite initial skepticism-one X user joked, “Goose is basically Pokémon Ho”-the app quickly climbed to #4 in the App Store’s free lifestyle downloads after its launch last Thursday, and now ranks 33rd globally in the lifestyle category. The surge in downloads appears linked to the promotional efforts of these AI-driven influencer accounts.
WIRED identified more than two dozen similar Instagram profiles, all created in May or June 2026, with sparse content and frequent cross-commenting using heart and fire emojis. These accounts often follow potential users, add them to Close Friends Stories, or send direct messages with identical language inviting them to Goose. Marketing professionals like Ryan Cheam and Dalton Bauer reported receiving multiple, nearly identical DMs from new accounts such as @alistaircrombbie and @lucalepkowski, whose profile images also tested as AI-generated or AI-edited.
Goose’s cofounder David Aliagas has posted Instagram Stories advertising paid “ambassador” roles to manage multiple social media accounts, offering $1,800 to $2,100 per month for several hours of daily work. He also mentioned buying “finstas” (fake Instagram accounts) for $100 each. These recruitment efforts remain visible in his Story highlights under “AMBASSADORS.”
The use of AI-generated influencers for undisclosed marketing is not unique to Goose. A recent Guardian investigation cited a former celebrity manager estimating that 40 to 60 percent of some major brands’ influencer content is artificially generated, often without disclosure. Legal experts like advertising attorney Rob Freund note that the US Federal Trade Commission prohibits deceptive advertising, including the use of fake accounts to simulate real users. New York law now requires advertisers to disclose AI-generated content, with fines starting at $1,000 for violations.
Meta, which owns Instagram, requires users to label artificially generated content and may remove posts that fail to comply. However, the private nature of DMs and Close Friends Stories complicates enforcement. As a result, many users may not realize that the influencers promoting Goose are not real people. Some, like Cheam, have expressed concern about the campaign’s deceptive tactics, calling for greater transparency.
