Report says Goose app was promoted with AI made Instagram accounts

In short: A Wired report says Goose, a new invite only app for gay men, was promoted on Instagram by accounts that do not seem to belong to real people.

What happened

Goose is a dating and friendship app for gay men that markets itself as more focused on relationships than quick hookups. Wired reports that soon after Goose launched, it spread through invite codes shared on Instagram, often through the Close Friends feature (a private story list you choose).

The issue is that many of the people pushing those invites appear to be fake. Wired points to Instagram accounts like @miles.sumrall and @danielmmulugeta, which were created in May 2026, had few posts, and showed signs of unusual activity, like following far more people than followed them back.

Wired says software tools that check for AI made images flagged these accounts’ profile photos as likely generated by AI. Wired also used Google’s SynthID checks in Gemini, which can sometimes detect images made with Google AI, and it indicated that “most or all of” some profile photos were created using Google AI.

Goose was created by model and influencer Derek Chadwick and former BeReal growth and community manager David Aliagas, according to the report. Wired says Chadwick and Goose did not respond to requests for comment. Aliagas posted Instagram Stories about hiring “ambassadors” to manage multiple accounts, and mentioned buying “finstas” (fake Instagram accounts).

Why it matters

For regular users, this looks like getting a party invite from someone friendly, then realizing the person might be a computer generated mask. It also raises legal questions, since US advertising rules can prohibit misleading promotions, and New York has a law that requires disclosures for AI generated ads.

Source: Wired