Is AI a panacea for cracking the "bad date" on the network?

Source: Silicon Rabbit Race

Author | Lexie Editor | Lu

Image source: Generated by Wujie AI

As 2023 draws to a close, AI, which has been a hot topic all year, still maintains its position as the "king of topics," occupying the headlines and casual conversations after meals. For various industries, how to use AI has become a crucial decision for success or failure.

AI is expected to become the perfect answer to solve challenges in various industries, one of which is the social track that is as hot as AI. Nowadays, online socializing has become the main channel for young people to make friends and date. This time, AI, which is responsible for redefining various industries, is also expected to "revolutionize" social interaction.

Old-school social software: Fully embracing AI

One of the most popular dating apps, Bumble, has already laid out its AI strategy. Bumble, which has a unique advantage in the dating track for female users, has attracted a lot of attention for its founder, Whitney Wolfe Herd. In November of this year, Bumble announced that Whitney Wolfe Herd would step down as CEO and only serve as the executive chairman. She will be succeeded by Lidiane Jones, who has years of experience in the tech industry and was previously the CEO of Slack. Before Slack, she held senior positions at Microsoft, Sonos, and Salesforce.

Image source: TechCrunch

Like many social apps, Bumble has enjoyed the benefits of the pandemic, with a 200% increase in users in 2021. However, Bumble's growth has been sluggish recently, with its stock price dropping to below $13, a far cry from its peak of $70. Bumble's competitor, Match Group, also announced that its fourth-quarter revenue this year will be lower than expected, indicating a sluggish overall trend in the dating market.

Jones has the heavy responsibility of leading Bumble out of the fog. She has chosen to focus on AI, stating that AI will better match users with their desired partners and create a new experience for users to naturally discover their matches. Previously at Slack, one of Jones's important decisions was to integrate AI more smoothly and effectively with the product. All AI functions in Slack must be "trust-based," and the use of AI must solve meaningful problems while protecting all user data. Wolfe Herd also stated that AI will make matching more reliable and secure, and more customized recommendations can also shorten the time from matching to meeting for users.

Although Bumble has not yet disclosed many details about its next steps, it has already begun using AI for multiple functions on the app. For example, it will help start conversations based on users' basic information and interests, and it will also use AI to detect and warn users about nude or pornographic images.

Bumble's AI ice-breaking conversation feature

How to present oneself on a dating app is a headache for many users. Tinder announced in August this year that it is launching a new feature that uses AI to help users choose the most fitting photos to put on their profiles, showing a more vivid and authentic social personality. Tinder also hinted at more AI-based features in development, such as more customized content display for users or using AI to help users write personal profiles.

A previous survey by Tinder indicated that about 30% of users are willing to use AI-generated content to create their profiles on Tinder. It is said that Stefan-Pierre Tomlin, the male user who has been swiped right the most on Tinder, has launched his own dating consultation service, mainly teaching how to use AI software like ChatGPT to create better personal profiles and get more right swipes.

Tinder's AI photo selection feature

Of course, AI can also be used to enhance the safety of social interactions. Earlier this year, Tinder introduced an AI-based photo detection feature to ensure the authenticity of users, and it will soon be upgraded to video verification.

OKCupid, also under Match Group, has a different style from Tinder, focusing more on enabling users to have "soulful" conversations. Therefore, when users create profiles, they have to answer more complex personal profile questions, which can help the algorithm determine whether the matching partner also aligns with their values. Just this year, OKCupid tested using ChatGPT to generate these matching questions, inspired by a survey of users. The results showed that users who were more supportive of AI had a 40% higher success rate in matching than those who were not.

The questions generated by ChatGPT include: "Introverted or extroverted?" "Early riser or night owl?" "How do you spend your weekends?" "What quality do you value most in a partner?" "How do you know when emotions can progress to the next stage in a relationship?" "In a romantic relationship, how do you balance your needs with your partner's needs?" OKCupid has over 4,000 questions in its question bank for users to choose from, and these AI-generated questions were answered by users over 150,000 times shortly after being released, leading to the successful testing of this feature and giving the OKCupid team confidence to officially launch AI-generated user questions as a formal feature.

Questions generated by ChatGPT

New generation software: No AI, no socializing

For old-school dating apps, using AI can improve the user experience, whether to attract new users or to retain existing users who are tired of dating apps. At the same time, a wave of new founders believes in the huge potential of AI, thinking that it can crack the various pain points in dating and using dating app experiences, and has created core technology based on AI dating apps.

For many users, one of the difficulties of using dating apps is keeping the conversation going. Often, the conversation runs out of topics. AI may be able to help users out of this predicament. For example, on Yourmove.ai and the Rizz app, users can upload screenshots of their chats, and AI will provide some chat responses with the purpose of "flirting." Users can also ask AI for "wittier" or "more romantic" responses, so introverted individuals no longer have to fear being conversation enders. However, the AI-recommended responses shared by users currently have a somewhat "cheesy" meaning.

Rizz app

In addition to assisting users in chatting, some AI can even help users decide who to date. For example, the dating app Iris conducts surveys when users register to understand their preferences for the appearance of their potential partners. The app then uses AI algorithms to display potential matches, ensuring that both parties will find each other attractive based on their appearance, thus greatly reducing the likelihood of users swiping left.

Iris app

Aimm conducts detailed personality tests when users register. Users need to answer preference questions about topics such as music and art, as well as make choices in hypothetical romantic scenarios. All the answers are analyzed by AI, and a week later, the system will provide the most suitable match tailored for the user.

There is also a new dating app called Teaser, which allows users to chat with the "AI version" of their potential matches before chatting with the actual person. Users can choose from various personalities for their AI chatbots, such as "introverted" or "easygoing," or "a bit of a scoundrel" or "a bit crazy." The algorithm then uses this information combined with the user's usual chatting style on the app to mimic the conversation. If the user likes the simulated conversation, they can choose to start a real conversation. Teaser's CEO, Daniel Liss, stated that most dating apps currently want to keep users single for a long time to maintain their user data metrics. The "teaser" feature of Teaser can help users save time by avoiding unsuitable matches and reduce the risk of being "ghosted."

Teaser AI

The founder of Teaser's previous work was the popular camera app Dispo, which simulates the concept of film cameras. After taking a photo, users have to wait until the next day to view and share it. This vintage-style app aims to reduce users' obsession with creating a perfect social image. This original intention has also attracted the attention of many investors. Dispo has currently raised a total of $24 million in funding, with investors including Seven Seven Six and Unshackled Ventures, as well as celebrities like Cara Delevingne.

It remains to be seen whether Teaser can replicate Dispo's success, as Teaser's AI is still somewhat inexperienced in chatting. Before users use Teaser, the system issues a warning, stating that the AI system may talk nonsense, and users should also be careful to protect their privacy. Some users' initial experiences with using AI are also a bit awkward, such as mentioning in their profile that they have a dog, but the AI incarnation tells the match that they have a child, or starts talking about another date right after the match, indicating that it will take some time for users to truly trust their AI to screen potential dates.

Teaser convo

Blush and RomanticAI take Teaser's AI concept further by providing users with "digital boyfriends/girlfriends" to train their social and romantic skills. In Blush, users see an interface similar to regular dating apps, where they can match and chat with these virtual characters, and even go on virtual dates. Blush has created various characters for users to match with, such as 25-year-old humorous Aisha looking for a somewhat "nerdy" boy, or 23-year-old Theo, a French architect looking for a long-term relationship. Blush collaborates with psychologists to create background stories and dialogue models for each character to simulate real conflicts in relationships. Unlike many AI-created romantic figures, Blush aims for deeper interaction between its virtual characters and users, not just to help practice flirting, but also to learn how to resolve differences and misunderstandings in relationships.

Blush app

Former Tinder CEO Renate Nyborg has developed a new app called Amorai to provide AI emotional training. This app, mainly targeting users aged 18 to 30, uses AI technology based on the LLM model to create customized emotional companionship and training courses for users. In May of this year, it completed a pre-seed round of funding led by Andrew Ng's AI Fund.

Sparks, previously focused on providing dating experience advice for couples and spouses, has been revamped this year and rebranded as Flamme, adding an AI-based "ask anything" feature for users to seek various advice on dating and marriage. Its AI can tell you about the best restaurants for a date in New York, or how to propose to your partner, among other things. Unlike most dating apps, Flamme is not designed to help users find new partners, but rather to help couples and spouses maintain the spark in their relationships. The app also has a machine learning-based recommendation tool that provides date ideas based on the preferences and habits of both users.

Flamme app

Will AI make dating easier?

Undoubtedly, online dating has become the main way for many young people to make friends and find love. According to a Forbes survey this year, about 30% of young people in the United States have used dating apps or websites, and over 40% believe that using dating apps has made dating easier.

However, the many "pain points" that come with online dating have always made it difficult for people to fully trust that it can help them find their "soulmate." For example, this Forbes survey also showed that about 30% of users have been unsuccessful in finding love on dating apps, and the overall data shows that women are 15% less successful than men in finding partners on dating apps. Additionally, about half of the respondents expressed a somewhat negative attitude towards dating apps. A survey by Boston University also showed that about 40% of people believe that dating apps are not the best way to find a partner, and over 60% believe that everyone lies on dating apps.

Image source: ZDNet

AI promises to provide security and reliability, customization and personalization, as well as the potential for various forms of assistance, making it difficult to impress single people who are not satisfied with the current dating market. Multiple surveys also indicate that most users are relatively accepting of using AI in their dating experiences. For example, a recent survey by the UK cybersecurity company Kaspersky showed that over half of single men in the UK would use chatbots to help them chat with potential dates, and over 52% of single men would use them to increase the number of simultaneous conversations on dating apps. Additionally, about 75% of singles said they would seek help from ChatGPT during conversations, but only 37% said they would be willing to let AI help them build their dating profiles.

However, before AI can successfully revolutionize the dating market on its own, many considerations need to be taken into account. For example, as mentioned above, AI assistance is not always reliable and can distort users' intentions and lead to "lying" in a whimsical manner. The emotional training and support provided by AI are also relatively new services, and there is currently little evidence to support their effectiveness and safety. Furthermore, the increasing number of users using AI to enhance their dating game may lead to more serious issues such as widespread fake accounts and deception. There are also many ethical considerations surrounding artificial intelligence in society, such as concerns about whether users will truly fall in love with robots like the protagonist in the movie "Her," whether they will lose the ability to think independently, and whether they will reduce interaction with real people, leading to increased loneliness and emptiness.

Ultimately, AI can only provide some assistance or filtering online. When it comes to meeting in person, each person's personality, appearance, and values must be evaluated in a "real-life" manner, and AI cannot work its magic. In the game of social interaction, even the most powerful AI may not be as valuable as genuine sincerity.

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