Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Dating app companies like Tinder and The League are betting on in-person events to drive engagement on their online platforms and help attract new users.

According to The New York Post, dating app The League organized high-end events in New York, the Hamptons and even at the U.S. Open to drive engagement on its platform as well as to generate revenue. In fact, senior VP and head of marketing Lisa Kraynak told the Post: “It’s the beginning of a hybrid model in our largest market. The future is some combination of in-person, online and artificial intelligence.”

Dating apps have seen a decline in paying users in recent quarters, leading companies to try new features and even branch out into event organizing to appeal to daters who have become burned out from swiping. This hybrid model could prove effective, since dating apps are still the most popular way to meet people, according to recent studies, but coupling that with in-person events give people a better chance at connecting.

Dating app Hinge is looking for a new head of AI, and is willing to pay almost $400K to the right person who will lead the team.

AI has become increasingly important to dating apps, and Match Group CEO Bernard Kim is capitalizing on the versatile technology to expand product offerings, especially for star app Tinder. Now, he’s focusing efforts on AI for its fastest-growing dating app, Hinge.

According to Business Insider, the new position was created to confirm Hinge as an “AI-first company.” The VP of Artificial Intelligence will lead a team of data scientists and machine learning engineers “to create and deploy AI features across the app,” as reported by Business Insider. The new hire will be based in New York, and report to Ben Celebicic, Hinge’s Chief Technology Officer.

China-based dating app Yumi has started beta testing experiences in its new metaverse, called Meta Town, hoping to attract young Gen Z daters who are interested in immersive experiences.

Users can create avatars based on their photos, explore the metaverse to find other virtual daters, and have real-time audio conversations with “artificial intelligence-powered translation,” according to the South China Morning Post, making it easier for daters who don’t speak the same language to connect.

The metaverse is a platform where people can interact via avatars in real time and in different virtual spaces, often with the ability to exchange virtual goods and services. 

Artificial intelligence is part of the dating app experience, but what most online daters don’t know is that it could be influencing your decisions about matches and who grabs your interest more than you know.

Researchers from the Universidad de Deusto in Spain conducted a study to find out how much of our current decision-making is driven by the information we are fed – specifically when it comes to AI. AI is the driver in matching algorithms on dating apps, monitoring your choices and preferences to better understand who you are, and then suggesting who might be a good match for you.  

According to the study’s press release, researchers provided participants with images of fictional potential dates as well as political candidates, and asked each person to choose, based on the images provided, who they would vote for or who they would consider dating, respectively. In some cases, AI would explicitly favor certain candidates by how accurate the match was – for example, offering that one candidate or potential date had 40 percent compatibility while another had 90 percent compatibility. 

Singles in Japan have the government on their side when it comes to finding a mate. The country’s Cabinet Office is asking for budget approval for a new dating service that is driven by artificial intelligence.

According to CNet, Japan currently has government-run matchmaking, so it’s not a new idea. About 25 of Japan’s 47 prefectures offer state-run services similar to an online dating app, where people complete basic profile information and are given a list of people who match their criteria. However, introducing AI could change the game with more targeted matchmaking abilities.

Now that COVID-19 has created a surge of activity and interest in dating apps, many singles around the world are turning to them to find love. In light of this, Japanese officials have an eye on AI to drive better, more curated matches, with their goal being to help people start families.

A New York City task force on cyber sexual assault has discovered more than 70,000 photos of Tinder users on an online cyber-crime forum. Aaron DeVera, a member of the task force, told reporters that the images were found on a site known for trading in malicious software and that only female users appear to have been targeted.

Gizomodo was the first outlet to share the news. According to the original report, the photos were accompanied by a text file containing around 16,000 unique Tinder user IDs. Items found in the photos, like the iPhone X, and metadata indicate that many of the pictures are relatively current — some, in fact, have timestamps dated as recent as October 2019. The availability of this information to cybercriminals raises serious concerns about why it was collected and what it could be used for.