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Match Group has hired a new Vice President of Innovation, a role that will direct the use of AI over its suite of apps.

Mark Kantor comes from his previous role as head of growth at Zynga, and co-founded startups like Yellowbrick and Grafitti, according to Tech Crunch. He will lead a team of engineers and product designers in harnessing AI technology for new features. According to an internal memo received by Tech Crunch, the new team is called ASL, which stands for Art x Science Lab, but is also a reference to an online pickup line (“age, sex, location”).

AI has been a tool that dating apps have incorporated in various ways, including in algorithms to better understand user preferences when delivering potential matches. Now with tools like ChatGPT, daters are using AI for profile-writing and messages, so dating app companies like Match Group are seeing opportunity.

Match Group and its partner Garbo, a nonprofit provider of background checks, have parted ways, according to a story that broke in The Wall Street Journal.

Garbo announced in a blog post that it will be shutting down its consumer-facing business as a result of the split. While details were not shared about exactly what happened, Garbo blamed Match Group for both the difference in priorities and the execution of the service on its platform.

Garbo’s service was integrated into Match Group’s Tinder platform and allowed users run background checks on potential dates using just a name and phone number. Garbo would give them a report stating if the person had any public reports issued against them for past violence, arrests, convictions and restraining orders.

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.

Grindr has issued a return-to-the-office policy for all workers, forcing them to relocate to one of the company’s three main offices by October 3rd or lose their jobs. Employees say this is a retaliatory move, since it comes two weeks after they announced their plan to form a union.

According to Vice, who obtained the certification form that was sent to workers, the policy states that employees must move to within 50 miles of their newly designated office or they will lose their jobs.

Workers were given the choice to move to either Chicago (for the engineering team), and Los Angeles or San Francisco (for the product and design teams), and if they were not willing to relocate, their jobs would end August 31st. Workers were offered six months’ severance pay and healthcare benefits if they lost their jobs, according to the memo issued by the company.

Match Group announced in its quarterly earnings call that its star app Tinder will be launching a “high-end” subscription tier this fall. In addition, Tinder will debut a product refresh to cater to the Gen Z dating market.

The company has been testing price points in different markets, including a $500 subscription that was called Tinder Vault, according to CPO Mark Van Ryswyk. In an interview with Fast Company earlier this year, he noted that there’s a market for daters who are willing to pay for good matches, as evidenced by the success of its exclusive dating app The League.

However, the price point was arguably high for an app that will not include human matchmakers, but instead will continue to rely on technology to serve up better matches.

Parents in China are taking matters into their own hands with their single adult children and using dating apps to help them find someone to marry.

Parent-facing dating apps are taking off in China, according to Rest of World, which reports on tech trends globally. Many parents are using online matchmaking platforms like Perfect In-Laws, Family-Building Matchmaking, and Parents Matchmaking to set up dates for their grown and unmarried children.

On platforms like these, the parents set up profiles for their children, sometimes without their knowledge or consent, according to Rest of World. When the match is made, it’s the parents who meet and get to know each other first, similar to matchmaking apps used in India.