NO MORE SWIPING RIGHT

AI is transforming dating apps

- ELI TAN

After swiping aimlessly for years on dating apps like Hinge and Tinder, Emma Inge, a 25-year-old project manager in San Francisco, decided to try something different.

In September, after following an ad to the website of a startup called Known, Inge spent 20 minutes confiding in an artificial intelligence matchmaker. The matchmaker - essentially an AI chatbot - asked her over a phone call what she was looking for in a partner, and she relayed her preferences (athletic) and red flags (codependent).

A week later, a notification popped up on her phone. She had a match, and for a onetime fee of US$25 (around 800 baht), she could meet him at a bar.

"With how dating is nowadays, I thought, 'Oh, well, let's try it,'" Inge said. "Let's do it for the plot."

Her experience is an example of how AI is transforming the dating app industry. As startups with AI matchmakers pop up, the biggest dating apps - Hinge, Tinder, Bumble and Grindr - are trying to harness the technology to reinvent themselves. They are ushering in a new era of online dating in which people pay for a few premium AI matches a week, instead of subscribing to an endless stream of profiles.

"AI is already playing a big role in our business, but I think it has the potential to be a step change - the next technological shift," Hesam Hosseini, chief operating officer of Match Group, which owns Hinge and Tinder, said in an interview.

The change could not come at a better time for dating apps, many of which have been struggling. Most of the apps have let users create free accounts with the option to pay for perks like unlimited swipes. But satisfaction with the apps has sunk and so has the number of people willing to pay for them. (Most subscriptions cost around $30 a month.)