Dating in Washington? AI wants to be your wingman

Full disclosure, it's been a while since I've been on the dating scene, so I'm a little out of touch. But even for me this seems a bit too much. It seems that AI is now invading the dating scene. 

And it all starts with Tinder. 

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Tinder recently announced that its adding some AI and new non-AI features to their app in order to attract single Gen. Z’ers, and it seems that Tinder is just the beginning of this trend. 

According to axios.com,
‘AI already wants to be your hype man, therapist and companion. Now it also wants to find you a date.
Established dating apps and startups are using AI to overcome swipe fatigue.
Bumble CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd teased the app's AI assistant "Bee" coming later this year in an interview with Axios. 

Dating apps are now adding AI tools in order to help fix a problem that those same dating apps have created. 

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Spencer Rascoff, Match Group and Tinder CEO, said in a Statement. "With more than half our users under 30, we're building alongside a generation that wants dating to feel more authentic, lower-pressure and worth their time,"  

One of the features that some applications are offering is “virtual speed dating”. Everything I know about speed dating I learned from watching movies but in general, it seems to me that in a physical setting like a bar It might be fun, but in a virtual setting it might be risky. 

Using an AI tool to help you select who you might want to go on a date with to me, seems comparable to asking my refrigerator what I should have for dinner. 

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I realize that's not a fair comparison, but in some ways I'm not a fair guy. I'm sure my kids and grandkids can relate to these new features, but I'm afraid they've passed me by. 

Dating app companies are struggling to maintain their user base by adding these new AI features. Are these new AI tools actually effective, or is it just the next new shiny toy? 

An interesting statistic. 

A survey conducted by the Kinsey Institute claims 26% of US singles report using AI to enhance their Dating. 

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A study done by Norton says Six in 10 people using dating apps say that they believe they have had at least one conversation written by AI. 

It sounds like the odds are pretty good that AI may be operating in the background of your current online romance.