AI entering the dating pool is a bleak prospect

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Terrible news from the world of online dating. As if a parade of dubious romantic prospects and dead-end chats weren’t bad enough, artificial intelligence has dipped its toe into the dating pool.

Eleven years ago, Tinder helped to turn dating into a series of quick-fire interactions on the internet. But for some jaded users, even writing “Hi” to a romantic prospect is now too much effort. Tech start-ups such as Rizz and YourMove AI are gaining a foothold in the sector by offering AI assistance in creating witty opening lines and appealing profiles.

Meeting strangers on the internet is by nature a random affair. Artificial chat is at least a less sinister way to help that process along than asking users to swab the insides of their mouth, as DNA-dating app Pheramor once did. But a proliferation of AI-assisted conversations suggests that eventually dating apps will simply be full of computers trying to woo other computers.

One start-up even offers the chance to watch this exact premise unfold. Teaser AI asks users questions about themselves and their personalities and then crafts AI-generated chat that is designed to mimic them. When individuals match, they can sit back and watch as their chatbots try to chat each other up. 

The companies behind the biggest dating apps are following these developments with great interest. Bumble claims that AI is improving matches. Chief executive Whitney Wolfe Herd has also said that AI might be used to simplify the process of creating an online dating profile, helping people to become more confident. 

Match, which owns Tinder and OkCupid, notes that Tinder already uses AI to moderate photos (a bid to keep the site respectable). Now it wants to see if it can help with profile creations. Generative AI could ease online dating “fatigue”, said Match chief executive Bernard Kim in May. He argues that having an AI assistant at hand could help to tackle the scourge of modern dating that is ghosting — ie someone abruptly terminating all contact without warning.

But daters who need AI to remind them to end a conversation may not bother to take the advice. Plus, already fragile ties between strangers will fracture further if one or both suspect that they are not engaging with a real person. Ghosting would become even more common. 

Undeterred, online tech magazine Wired made the bold claim this year that AI would make dating more fun by serving up pithy icebreakers. It claimed any opposition was the result of tedious cynicism. Yet even the pithiest of opening lines loses value once you know that it didn’t come from a real person. Journalist Nancy Jo Sales, who once wrote a book about her online dating exploits, points out that AI eliminates the entire point of dating, which is supposed to be about getting to know another person. 

There is also the possibility that the technology will supercharge the problem of fake accounts. If real users are adding AI-generated chat then bots will become more difficult to identify.

This is something that dating apps and their users are both very sensitive about. Putting off users is a gamble that these apps cannot afford to take. The number of paying users at Tinder have flatlined. Parent company Match Group’s share price has fallen by more than a third in the past 12 months. Rival dating app company Bumble, which listed on markets in 2021 at $43 per share, now trades at just over $18. 

It’s not as if users of other forms of social media have shown much interest in chatting with AI, either. After Snapchat added an AI chatbot called My AI, users were so cross that they posted multiple negative reviews on Apple’s App Store. “Either make your new AI experiment bearable to speak to, or remove it from the top of my friends list,” wrote one.

Meta’s suggestion that AI personas can help its users in messaging apps WhatsApp and Messenger has also received little positive feedback. 

In the end, AI-enhanced seduction may turn out to be no more sophisticated than the human kind. The test will come when the conversation moves beyond the app. In the real world, it will quickly become apparent who was blessed with genuine charm and who was flirting with a little help from AI all along.

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