Haliey Welch, the 22-year-old who went viral for her “Hawk Tuah” video, has managed to turn her brief moment of fame into a full-fledged career. In just a few months, Welch has rapidly risen to fame, amassing around 5 million followers across various social media platforms.
After recently releasing her own podcast titled “Talk Tuah,” she’s now venturing into the tech world with a new AI-powered dating advice app called Pookie Tools.
Launched on the App Store this week, Pookie Tools offers a range of features aimed at Gen Z singles, such as an AI chatbot to help with conversation starters and general dating advice, outfit recommendations for dates, tips to enhance your dating profile, and even a zodiac compatibility feature.
The app is launching at a time when many young daters have complaints about the current online dating culture, which is plagued by ghosting, scams, and other challenges. Some users have even turned to AI tools like ChatGPT for dating advice, using prompts to generate entire conversations. Major dating platforms Bumble and Tinder have also introduced AI tools.
While Welch is not the first content creator to launch an app, it’s rare for someone to do it so early in their career, which could signal creators are becoming anxious about the sustainability of their success. More established influencers, such as Marques Brownlee (MKBHD) and David Dobrik, have previously launched their own apps.
TechCrunch spoke (or, talked tuah) with Welch and discussed her new app, which is named after a cute nickname she calls her boyfriend.
“I [was on] Bill Maher’s podcast, and it was actually one of his ideas he gave me,” Welch said. “He kind of pushed me, in a way, saying I should be a relationship coach. And so we came up with the idea. … This app is the easiest way for them to find their forever Pookie.”
To build the app, Welch partnered with Ben Ganz, founder of Ultimate AI Studio, an AI customer support automation platform.
In theory, Welch’s app seems like a fun and promising concept tailored for those navigating the world of dating and relationships. It resembles other AI-driven relationship coaching tools, generating responses to all sorts of relationship questions, whether you’re seeking advice on communication, conflict resolution, or simply how to have an enjoyable date.
One standout feature is its ability to suggest creative date ideas based on your location and whether it’s your first date or your 10th time seeing the person. Additionally, the app offers outfit recommendations to help you dress appropriately for different dating scenarios, whether it’s a casual coffee date or an elegant dinner. It can also analyze your dating app profiles and provide feedback, such as engaging prompts or recommendations for adding more photos that show off your personality. Pookie’s “Flirt Meter” evaluates your text messages on a scale of 0 to 100 to determine their flirtatiousness.
When it was announced that the Hawk Tuah girl would be offering dating advice through a new app, we expected the chatbot to embody her signature humor and bluntness. However, upon testing Pookie Tools’ AI chatbot, it became apparent that the responses were generic and lacked the distinctive personality that we anticipated. As a result, it felt strikingly similar to ChatGPT and other existing AI tools.
According to Ganz, however, they’re working on training the model by using transcripts from the podcast.
Two of the tools may be considered controversial, however: “Bald Predictor” and “Height Detector.”
Bald Predictor works by analyzing a photo of a person searching for potential patterns of hair loss. Height Detector uses proportions and surroundings to estimate height.
Both of these AI tools appear to be a response to frustrations expressed by some women regarding men who misrepresent their height on dating profiles or disguise their hair loss in photos. Some women are already using ChatGPT to call out men for lying about their height.
However, the tools might come across as mean-spirited and could perpetuate the stigma that short and bald men are inferior.
Welch maintains that the tools are intended to be lighthearted. But she did mention that, as a 5’8” woman, her favorite tool is the height detector.
And, as with any AI technology, the Height Detector isn’t 100% accurate and only provides an estimated guess. Our testing yielded mixed results, but one ended up being just 2 inches off from the person’s real height, taking several things into consideration, like the countertops next to the person and the ceiling height. When we tested the Bald Predictor, the AI couldn’t determine the probability of baldness from some of the images.
Welch and Ganz plan to introduce new features in the future by collaborating with podcast guests and other content creators, although they did not specify which features will be added. Notable figures such as Holly Madison and Whitney Cummings have appeared on Talk Tuah, which may attract more users to the app.
Pookie Tools operates on a subscription model; it costs $7 per week or $50 per year. There’s also a three-day free trial.
