{"id":8941,"date":"2025-07-19T20:49:20","date_gmt":"2025-07-19T20:49:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/8941\/"},"modified":"2025-07-19T20:49:20","modified_gmt":"2025-07-19T20:49:20","slug":"ai-can-be-your-wingman-when-online-dating-but-should-you-let-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/8941\/","title":{"rendered":"AI can be your wingman when online dating \u2013 but should you let it?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Many dating app companies are enthusiastic about incorporating generative AI into their products. Whitney Wolfe Herd<\/a>, founder of dating app Bumble, wants gen-AI to \u201chelp create more healthy and equitable relationships\u201d. In her vision of the near future, people will have AI dating concierges who could \u201cdate\u201d other people\u2019s dating concierges for them, to find out which pairings were most compatible. <\/p>\n

Dating app Grindr is developing an AI wingman<\/a>, which it hopes to be up and running by 2027. Match Group, owner of popular dating apps including Tinder, Hinge and OK Cupid, have also expressed keen interest<\/a> in using gen-AI in their products, believing recent advances in AI technology \u201chave the power to be transformational, making it more seamless and engaging for users to participate in dating apps\u201d. One of the ways they think gen-AI can do this is by enhancing \u201cthe authenticity of human connections\u201d.<\/p>\n

Use of gen-AI in online dating is not just some futuristic possibility, though. It\u2019s already here. <\/p>\n

Want to enhance your photos or present yourself in a different style? There are plenty of online tools<\/a> for that. Similarly, if you want AI to help \u201ccraft the perfect, attention-grabbing bio\u201d<\/a> for you, it can do that. AI can even help you with making conversation<\/a>, by analysing your chat history and suggesting ways to reply.<\/p>\n

Extra help<\/p>\n

It isn\u2019t just dating app companies who are enthusiastic about AI use in dating apps either. A recent survey<\/a> carried out by Cosmopolitan magazine and Bumble of 5,000 gen-Zers and millennials found that 69% of respondents were excited about \u201cthe ways AI could make dating easier and more efficient\u201d. <\/p>\n

An even higher proportion (86%) \u201cbelieve it could help solve pervasive dating fatigue\u201d. A surprising 86% of men and 77% of the women surveyed would share their message history with AI to help guide their dating app conversations. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

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These research-backed articles break down the complexities of modern love to help you build meaningful connections, no matter your relationship status.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not hard to see why AI is so appealing for dating app users and providers. Dating apps seem to be losing their novelty: many users are reportedly abandoning<\/a> them due to so-called \u201cdating app fatigue\u201d \u2013 feeling bored and burnt out with dating apps.<\/p>\n

Apps and users might be hopeful that gen-AI can make dating apps fun again, or if not fun, then at least that it will make them actually lead to dates. Some AI dating companions claim to get you ten times more dates<\/a> and better dates at that. Given that men tend to get fewer matches<\/a> on dating apps than women, it\u2019s also not surprising that we\u2019re seeing more enthusiasm from men than women about the possibilities AI could bring.<\/p>\n

Talk of gen-AI in connection to online dating gives rise to many ethical concerns. We at the Ethical Dating Online Network<\/a>, an international network of over 30 multi-disciplinary academics interested in how online dating could be more ethical, think that dating app companies need to convincingly answer these worries<\/a> before rushing new products to market. Here are a few standout issues. <\/p>\n

Pitfalls of AI dating<\/p>\n

Technology companies correctly identify some contemporary social issues, such as loneliness<\/a>, anxiety at social interactions, and concerns about dating culture, as hindering people\u2019s dating lives. <\/p>\n

But turning to more technology to solve these issues puts us at risk of losing the skills we need<\/a> to make close relationships work. The more we can reach for gen-AI to guide our interactions, the less we might be tempted to practise on our own, or to take accountability for what we communicate. After all, an AI \u201cwingman\u201d is of little use when meeting in person.<\/p>\n

Also, AI tools risk entrenching much of dating culture that people find stressful. Norms around \u201cbanter\u201d<\/a>, attractiveness or flirting<\/a> can make the search for intimacy seem like a competitive battleground. The way AI works \u2013 learning from existing conversations \u2013 means that it will reproduce these less desirable aspects.<\/p>\n

\"Woman<\/p>\n

Gen-AI may reproduce the negative elements of online dating culture.
\n fizkes\/Shutterstock<\/a><\/p>\n

Instead of embracing those norms and ideals, and trying to equip everyone with the tools to seemingly meet impossibly high standards, dating app companies could do more to \u201cde-escalate\u201d dating culture: make it calmer, more ordinary and help people be vulnerable. For example, they could rethink how they charge for their products, encourage a culture of honesty, and look at alternatives to the \u201cswiping\u201d interfaces.<\/p>\n

The possibility of misrepresentation<\/a> is another concern. People have always massaged the truth when it comes to dating, and the internet has made this easier. But the more we are encouraged to use AI tools, and as they are embedded in dating apps, bad actors can more simply take advantage of the vulnerable. <\/p>\n

An AI-generated photo, or conversation, can lead to exchanges of bank details, grooming and sexual exploitation<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Stopping short of fraud, however, is the looming intimate authenticity crisis. Online dating awash with AI generated material risks becoming a murky experience. A sincere user might struggle to identify like-minded matches on apps where use of AI is common. <\/p>\n

This interpretive burden is annoying for anyone, but it will exacerbate the existing frustrations women, more so than men, experience on dating apps as they navigate spaces full of with timewasting, abuse<\/a>, harassment<\/a> and unwanted sexualisation<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Indeed, women might worry that AI will turbo-charge the ability of some men to prove a nuisance online. Bots, automation, conversation-generating tools, can help some men to lay claim to the attention of many women simultaneously<\/a>. <\/p>\n

AI tools may seem like harmless fun, or a useful timesaver. Some people may even wholeheartedly accept that AI generated content is not \u201cauthentic\u201d and love it anyway. <\/p>\n

Without clear guardrails in place, however, and more effort by app companies to provide informed choices based on transparency about how their apps work, any potential benefits of AI will be obscured by the negative impact it has to intimacy online.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Many dating app companies are enthusiastic about incorporating generative AI into their products. Whitney Wolfe Herd, founder of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8942,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[554,733,4308,86,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-8941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-technology","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8941"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8941\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}