AI wants to be your wingman
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Illustration: Lindsey Bailey/Axios
AI already wants to be your hype man, therapist and companion. Now it also wants to find you a date.
The big picture: Established dating apps and new startups are using AI to overcome the swipe fatigue that's forced the online dating industry to innovate. Through AI-assisted conversation starters, in-app assistants and AI-powered chemistry testing, the tech has many uses in the business of love.
- Bumble CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd teased the app's AI assistant "Bee" coming later this year in an interview with Axios.
Zoom in: New York-based Amata coordinates some 2,000 first dates a month, spokesperson Mandy Menaker says. Users who agree to the AI matchmaker's pairing purchase a $20 "date token," and the app plans the details.
- To discourage ghosting, the app builds in consequences: If you cancel two dates in a row, you're temporarily blocked from matching.
- "It's really focused on intentional dating," Menaker says.
Another approach: Carly Malatskey founded SoCal-based AI matchmaker Joey AI after noticing the dating startups she encountered through her venture capital work lacked nuance. "People are choosing a life partner ... as mindlessly as scrolling on TikTok," she says.
- With Joey, there's no swiping. There's not even an app. It starts with a phone call between an interested single and their AI matchmaker.
I gave Joey a ring. In a mellow Australian accent, the AI asked me my name, job and basic dating preferences, and then went deeper: How important is politics in my relationships? What time did I wake up today? How often have I talked with my family this week?
- After that initial call, users are verified and photos are shared, with Joey connecting new hopeful romantics via text. (I opted out of getting matched — a journalist engaged to her high school sweetheart likely isn't the target audience.)
- "Joey starts as a matchmaker and then can grow into this wingman," Malatskey says, with users reaching out to Joey for advice — and pep talks — as dates proceed.
For San Francisco-based Known, there's no in-app chatting between users, no profiles and no swiping.
- Users talk to an AI matchmaker and pay $15 to secure their real-life hang, which also helps prevent no-shows.
- The goal, says co-founder and CEO Celeste Amadon, is to feel like you're being introduced by a friend who "understands you really, really well, but knows everybody in your city instead of a couple hundred people."
Case in point: Marie Lansley, a 36-year-old San Franciscan, tried out Known to find her "prince charming." She was struck by the matchmaker's emotional intelligence, and appreciated not having to build a profile.
- Her first match wasn't love at first bot, but she's not ruling out letting AI find her true love.
- "I am not 100% sure it can right now, but maybe it can help me sift through the volume so that I can then go out and meet that person."
The bottom line: "Chemistry will always be analog," Lansley says.
- AI can help arrange a date, but the rest is up to humans.
Go deeper: Bumble plans a reset to lure Gen Z back
