Forget swiping through endless
profiles. Dating apps are using artificial intelligence to suggest where to go
on a first date, recommend what to say and even find a partner who looks like
your favorite celebrity.
Until recently
smartphone dating apps — such as Tinder which lets you see in real time who is
available and “swipe” if you wish to meet someone — left it up to users to ask
someone out and then make the date go well.
But to fight growing fatigue
from searching through profiles in vain, the online dating sector is turning to
artificial intelligence (AI) to help arrange meetings in real life and act as a
dating coach.
These new uses
for AI — the science of programming computers to reproduce human processes like
thinking and decision making — by dating apps were highlighted at the four-day
Web Summit which wraps up Thursday in Lisbon.
Online dating
pioneer eHarmony announced it is developing an AI-enabled feature which nudges
users to suggest meeting in person after they have been chatting in the app for
a while.
“There is a lot of activity on dating apps but
by and large there is not a lot of dates,” eHarmony CEO Grant Langston told the
annual tech gathering.
“Guys don’t know
how to ask, it’s astounding really how many people need help and we think we
can do that in an automated way.”
British dating
app Loveflutter plans to use AI to analyse chats between its users to determine
their compatibility and suggest when they should meet.
“We will ping a
message saying ‘You are getting along really well, why don’t you go on your
first date’,” said Loveflutter co-founder Daigo Smith.
Loveflutter
already suggests places to go on a first date that are equidistant from both
people’s homes using information from Foursquare, an app that helps smartphone
users find nearby restaurants, bars and clubs.
“It kind of takes the pressure off organising
that first date,” said Smith.
Tinder founder
Sean Rad said AI will “create better user experiences” and predicted iPhone’s
Siri Voice assistant would in the future act as a matchmaker.
An entirely
voice operated dating app called AIMM which uses AI to mirror a human
matchmaking service is already being tested in Denver where it has about 1,000
users.
When you open
the app, a soothing voice asks questions about what you like to do on a date or
where you would like to travel.
It then suggests
suitable matches based on your personality. Once you have picked one you would
like to meet, the app tells you about them.
After several
days the app will help set up a time for a phone call between you and your
match — and give advice for your first date based on what it knows about the
other person.
“It will say
things like ‘based on her personality inclination she is a traditional person,
I would recommend dinner and a walk’,” said Kevin Teman, the app’s developer.
The app also
reminds you to ask questions “about the things that are important to you”
during the date, he added.
After the date,
the app checks in with both people to see how it went and recommend whether
they should continue to see each other or keep looking.
Teman hopes to
make it available across the United States early next year.
Badoo, a
London-based dating app, is now using AI and facial recognition technology to
let users find a match that looks like anyone at all, including their ex or
celebrity crush.
Users can upload
a picture of someone and the app will find lookalikes among Badoo’s more than
400 million users worldwide.
Reality TV star
Kim Kardashian, Oscar-winning actress Emma Stone and singer Beyonce are the
most searched for celebrities globally since Badoo introduced the feature —
dubbed Lookalikes — last year.
However not
everyone is convinced that AI can aid the search for love.
Among the
doubters at the Web Summit was UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who said
he was “a little bit skeptical” it could help “people chose their soul mates”.
“I’m very happy
I have chosen my soulmate by traditional methods,” said the former Portuguese
prime minister, who is married to a Lisbon city Councillor, in his opening
address to the gathering on Monday. (samaa News)