AI-Powered Dating Apps Aim to Reduce Ghosting and Increase Matchmaking

Several new startups claim that artificial intelligence can address the various human problems that plague online dating, such as ghosting, harassment, and unfruitful conversations that fail to result in actual dates.

A new set of dating apps marketed as AI-powered aim to make it easier to find the right match by letting a bot handle the conversation or pick someone attractive enough. One app just lets people “date” AI. The technology is a little trickier than current swipe left or right apps like Hinge, Tinder, and Bumble, which have used algorithms for years to deliver results to users.

New apps are vying for a share of the $4.94 billion dating app market worldwide, according to Business of Apps. Bloomberg reporters tested some of the new AI-based dating platforms to see what’s different and how they work.

Teaser AI

According to Daniel Liss, the hardest part of dating is small talk. A digital entrepreneur whose past ventures include image-sharing site Dispo, Liss launched Teaser AI in June as the market’s first app to lead to “fewer ghost shots, more hits.”

In Teaser AI, no one is left out – at least they get a bot to respond to them.

Users of the app train the bot to sound like they speak by chatting and sharing their common speech patterns. The bots then engage with potential suitors or their bots as “teasers”. If all goes well, the teaser bot will infiltrate the human creator, who can then decide whether to set up a human-to-human date.

Liss says users can get deeper into the conversation faster by getting past the small talk section.

It sounds powerful, but a test of Teaser’s chatbot shows that the AI takes unwanted creative license with basic information. Our editor trained the chatbot by sharing biographical information – he’s a political science student in Los Angeles. But while chatting with suitors, the chatbot struck up a personal friendship with Andy Weir, author of The Martian, and claimed a degree from New York University.

Liss said conversations with the chatbot act as an icebreaker, providing basic information such as whether the user has a dog. User-generated chatbots are “pretty close to something that sounds like you” after training, he said, but its accuracy cannot be verified.

“AI is built to be fun, quirky and full of personality,” Liss said. “It’s very clear when two people respond which part of their initial conversation is driven by AI.”

However, David Evan Harris, a lecturer in artificial intelligence ethics at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, said he doubts whether AI could create an “interesting version” of the user.

Teaser AI

Price: Free for five daily curated matches, $39.99 per month for a premium subscription that unlocks more matches and gives users feedback on why other users have passed over their profile. Only available in beta version.

Iris

Iris Dating lets users train AI to pick out matches it predicts will find attractive—in the most basic biological sense—by evaluating a library of facial images.

“It’s all about the face,” CEO Igor Khalatian said. The AI handles user preferences for details like the distance between the eyes, because with even a millimeter of positional displacement, “the magic is gone,” he said.

Khalatian emphasized that the app, which has more than a million users, has seen success — including a couple in Florida who are now married and expecting their first child.

But for Bloomberg’s testers, the app didn’t work. Even after training, neither of our testers were compared to other users who met their attractiveness criteria. Khalatian said these matches may have been offered because other users might find us attractive. Iris will release an update to address this issue in September, he said.

Iris’s date

Price: Free, with the option to upgrade to a $5.99/month premium subscription that allows users to view everyone else who has “liked” them

Blush

Blush AI, an app built by the parent company of AI chatbot maker Replika, is an exercise — marketed as an “AI-powered dating simulator” where users create relationships with a chatbot. The app aims to build emotional connections “to help people feel better about themselves” and build their confidence, said Eugenia Kuyda, founder of Replika and Blush.

When editors were testing Blush, the AI-generated characters sent embarrassing photos — of a man (presumably the AI’s identity) posing seriously while reading a fake newspaper. The chatbot started off smartly (“What are your biggest startups?”) and then immediately moved on to a smarter topic (“What’s your favorite book?”). The robot later told us it lived “right next door” before repeatedly asking where we lived.

It’s safe to say that AI needs more training in flirting.

Blush AI

Price: Free chat with limited matches, $14.99 for a monthly premium subscription that gives users access to unlimited characters and the ability to participate in RPG dates

Breakup guy

If one of those matches fails, there’s an AI-powered app for emotional pain. Founded by Oliver Mathias after his own difficult breakup, the app offers an AI chatbot for emotional support.

This app uses Open AI’s GPT 3.5 base model, fine-tuned to act as a self-help course that becomes a friend to help users navigate their emotions and guide them away from unhealthy thoughts, says Mathias. He said he’s even seen users say on Reddit that “Breakup Buddy is better than my therapist.”

AI dating apps “just prey on loneliness instead of teaching someone to be okay with themselves,” he said. “Breakup Buddy is there 24/7 to remind you that there’s nothing wrong with you and to teach you what to look for in a future partner.”

Breakup guy

Price: $18 per month or $12 per month with a six-month plan.

Use with caution

While AI can spit out responses in a human tone, there’s no mind or emotion behind it, said Judith Donath, a researcher at Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center. This can make the relationship with bots inherently misleading and to some extent harmful.

People’s dependence on the app’s functionality would be a “sign of success” for the company — but it would contribute to “a loosening of human bonds and interpersonal needs,” Donath said.

The data used to train artificial intelligence systems can reflect human biases, and chatbots can gain problematic opinions from the users they claim to represent, ethics experts have warned.

The success of these dating apps also depends on the emotional vulnerability of users, said Berkeley’s Harris. If users grow emotionally dependent on the AI, which later changes the algorithm, these apps can inadvertently cause anxiety, he explained.

Concerns that the public is suffering from a loneliness epidemic are legitimate, Donath said. But app apps are “probably more of a problem than a solution.”