College Students Launch AI Tool to Help Singles Chat on Dating Apps

Four college students have developed a new AI tool that is aimed to help singles communicate better over dating apps. Rizz generates personalized responses to messages using a screenshot of the chat, so singles can choose one, customize it, and move conversations forward.

The developers are coders who told The Washington Post that they struggled to chat with people, and this inspired them to create the app. "The reason we created this app is that we're experiencing the pain of not fully knowing how to converse with people," co-founder Charis Zhang told The Washington Post.

Rizz’s founders are all sophomores in college, with Zhang, Oliver Johansson and Tobias Worledge at the University of California at Berkeley; and Daniel He goes to school at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

Since the introduction of ChatGPT, more singles are employing this type of AI to help them with their messages and profile building on dating apps. In fact, Tinder and Hinge users are finding more success with matching using AI-generated responses than by crafting their own words. Some singles have felt cheated when they learn that responses aren’t really coming from a person, but from a bot, but others are embracing the change and leaning into harnessing the power of AI to help with their dating lives.

How to use Rizz

Image: Rizz

To add to the confusion and the growth of AI tools, a second chatbot tool also called Rizz was launched by another group of developers around the same time, and is also being used to help people message over dating apps. This was founded by three entrepreneurs in New York: Roman Khaves, Joshua Miller and Zack Ahmed, and has grown to 250,000 users. “The demand is strong because a lot of users don’t know how to open up on dating apps,” Khaves told The Washington Post.

Rizz users aren’t all satisfied with the experience, however. As Zhang told the Washington Post, one of the tool’s biggest challenges comes from trying to decipher input from users who aren’t used to writing “proper AI prompts” and therefore get unhelpful results. As an example, one woman’s profile said she knew the best place in town for birria tacos, and Rizz generated a response that said: “I’m glad to hear you’re enjoying the birria tacos in town! It sounds like you’re really taking the time to figure out your dating goals and that’s great! I’m sure you’ll find the right person for you soon!”

The California-based developers said their AI tool Rizz now has over 130,000 users since it launched in January, with its numbers rising exponentially after it went viral on social media, according to Insider.