Mr. Darcy AI bot is giving modern love advice to…
He’s tall, brooding, unhealthy at first impressions — and now, apparently, great with WiFi.
More than 200 years after first insulting Elizabeth Bennet at a Meryton ball, Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy is back — this time as a chatbot.
The swoon-worthy main man of Jane Austen’s “Pride & Prejudice” has entered the digital age — as “AI Mr. Darcy,” a Regency-era romantic reincarnated by tech company Upkarma.ai to dispense love advice to lovelorn modern ladies navigating relationship apps, ghosting and situationships in 2026.
Because if anybody understands emotional repression and slow-burn pressure, it’s the person who once fumbled a proposal so badly it required a full character arc to get well — and ladies are loving the unruly web’s most mannerly gent.
From Hinge fatigue to “who texts first?” paralysis, Austen devotees across New York and past are lining up to ask the fictional gentleman what he makes of soft-launches, breadcrumbing and whether or not chivalry is useless — or just buried under push notifications.
The bookish tech twist comes just as Netflix dropped the teaser for its shiny new six-part “Pride & Prejudice” adaptation sequence out this fall, with Emma Corrin starring as Lizzie and Jack Lowden stepping into those famously polished boots.
So what, precisely, would a Nineteenth-century gentleman have to say about Twenty first-century love?
New Yorker Madeleine Blaine, 29, who said that Mr. Darcy represents that “charming, unavailable-yet-full-of-potential man that women fall for … clinging to the hope that they will someday change or fully choose them,” wished to ask the romantic icon about his take on modern relationship, particularly relationship apps.
Mr. Darcy has traded horseback for high-speed web. Two centuries after bungling his proposal, Jane Austen’s brooding heartthrob is back — this time as an AI chatbot dishing relationship advice for the ghosting technology.
“Do you use dating apps and if so what’s your opening message?” Blaine not too long ago requested the AI Darcy chatbot.
She told The Post that she wished to know if he would strategy people in real life, and whether or not the abundance of choices makes it more durable to decide “the one.”
The bot, naturally, responded in full Regency flourish. He admitted that relationship apps sounded unusual to him, like “a physician’s instrument” for measuring affection.
He insisted that “character cannot simply be swiped aside” — it “must be endured” — and that dedication “becomes timid when choice is infinite.”
“To determine whether someone is worthy of one’s regard demands patience, attention, and a willingness to observe character over time,” he insisted.
“Quick judgments are rarely trustworthy, and an abundance of choice may incline one to perpetual indecision, rather than true discernment.”
Depictions of Mr. Darcy — particularly Colin Firth’s swoon-worthy flip in the 1995 BBC miniseries “Pride and Prejudice” — have helped cement him as an enduring romantic icon ladies can’t give up. Courtesy Everett Collection
“The heart, I have found, is never persuaded by convenience; it requires both constancy and clarity.”
When requested what he would possibly say in an opening Hinge message, he provided a pattern line so well mannered it might make modern singles swoon: “Madam, I cannot pretend to admire what I do not yet know; but I should be most interested to discover whether your mind is as engaging as your smile.”
He added that evolving for somebody doesn’t imply “changing who you are.”
Rather, love brings out the best elements of your self, “quietly and steadily, until no other comparison matters.”
Laura Pucker, 48, of Delray Beach, Florida, said she loves Mr. Darcy because [in the book] “he just went for it, even when Elizabeth rejected him at first … he never tried to control her.”
Believing that “most women, no matter how independent, still want to be pursued and treated like a princess,” Pucker put her own query to her idol — how would his famously brooding character and courtship type translate to “dating in 2026, with apps, situationships, and debates over who should make the first move?”
Darcy’s reply, Pucker revealed, was intense and eloquent. He admitted that “modern introductions, where affection can be summoned with a thumb, were astonishing and unsettling.”
But his basic strategy to love, he said, stays the same: “observe before committing, be honest in admiration, and persist when wounded pride tempts retreat.”
Sincerity, in his view, could be the “boldest act of all.” Love, in any century, “requires courage — to be fully known, and to remain.”
Millennials and Gen Z, meanwhile, often level to Matthew Macfadyen’s brooding efficiency in the 2005 “Pride & Prejudice” movie reverse Keira Knightley as the second they fell for Darcy in the first place. Focus Features
Christine Kirby, 38, of Nashville, Tennessee, told The Post that Darcy’s adaptability and integrity make him the right confidant: “He turns out to be someone that I think all women should be looking for in a partner: adaptable, willing to listen, and about action and true change.”
She said she sought out her favourite main man to help her type a very modern dilemma: ought to a lady “hold onto an engagement ring from a marriage that ended, or turn it into something that supports her next chapter?”
Kirby said that the bot acknowledged the ring as a image of guarantees that once held which means — but insisted “no woman should feel chained” to a relic of unhappiness.
“The matter, I think, is not whether she ought to keep it — but whether it continues to serve her dignity and peace,” digital Darcy told the Regency-loving publicist.
He steered that if the ring “brings regret or pain,” it shouldn’t stay frozen in its unique kind.
“Melt it down. Refashion it. Let it become something chosen freely, not bestowed under expectations that proved false.”
Jack Lowden is set to play Mr. Darcy in Netflix’s upcoming 2026 restricted sequence adaptation of “Pride & Prejudice,” with the first teaser dropping this week forward of its fall debut. Netflix
He added that reworking it may be empowering, a method to reclaim control over one’s own story (he ought to know, with his notorious redemption arc that ladies still swoon over to this day).
“There is a certain poetry in reclaiming one’s own narrative.”
So why do different generations of ladies across the globe still soften for Mr. Darcy — and use his Elizabeth-approved playbook to choose every future suitor?
Dr. Candice Cooper-Lovett, therapist and founder of A New Creation Psychotherapy Services, explained the psychology behind the fascination of Mr. Darcy as a character in the novel and in movie.
“Darcy is deliberate; he doesn’t spread his affection to be shared by many; when he chooses someone, he is fully committed,” she told The Post. “Women are not attracted to arrogance; they’re attracted to accountability and evolution.”
She said the basic “hard shell, soft center” dynamic creates pressure and depth, and Darcy’s willingness to mirror, grow, and stick it out units him aside in a relationship world full of ghosting and blended alerts.
Darcy still melts hearts across generations, consultants say, because he truly evolves, proving that accountability and dedication could be just as attractive as a smoldering glare. Bridgeman via Getty Images
After all, in “Pride and Prejudice,” he doesn’t just sulk after Elizabeth turns him down when he proposes for the first time — he alters his methods, turns into more socially engaged, and even discreetly saves her household’s status.
By the time he pops the query a second time, Elizabeth sees a man who’s confirmed he can act, adapt, and commit — making the swoon completely justified.
“Darcy does not move in ambiguity; when he loves, he lets it be known,” Cooper-Lovett explained. “He invests, takes risks, and stays.”
Her verdict on the AI Darcy fantasy?
It can truly be good for the center — as long as chatting with the bot encourages ladies to raise the bar for real-life romance and set clear requirements, slightly than feeding “I can change him” fantasies or ready around for a man to magically remodel like Darcy.
Instead, the takeaway needs to be to look for somebody who listens, takes suggestions, pursues with intention, and is prepared for true dedication.
“The fantasy is most healthy when it inspires standards, not hero complexes.”
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