This is a guest post by Richard Armstrong who is an early stage investor in many startups in both SE Asia and globally. Plus Richard has cofounded several companies.
Guest Author: Richard Armstrong
I was having a chat recently with a friend about AI and we came upon the topic of how it’s being used in the realm of dating.
And we covered a number of interesting topics, so I thought it would make for a good topic for an article.
Helping people find good human matches
Ever since the mid 1990’s people have been dating online. Sites like Match.com sprung up and went from being very niche to going mainstream. The reason for it was both a volume game and the ability to target.
For the first time people could scroll through thousands of profiles and filter by various criteria.
And online dating has gotten better and better over the years with more and more data being used to make good matches.
But still it is far from perfect. People go on tons of dates in places like the US using apps like Tinder but the reality is that divorce rates are at all-time records.
So the ‘quality’ of the matching still seems like it needs to improve a lot.
Scimatch is one startup that is targeting this area and getting some solid traction. They match based on similar ‘personalities’.
And they predict personality from people’s faces…. saying that they can do it with 87% accuracy. Which it sounds like many experts still don’t quite agree with them on.
But it is a very interesting model and one that i will be keeping tabs on.
Coaching is another very interesting area for AI
There have been human dating coaches for decades and many people actually make a career in this. But it’s not cheap and so not everyone can afford it.
A much more affordable option is having your coach be AI.
I read a really interesting article on this recently that you can find here: https://time.com/6457597/ai-dating/
Basically it talks about a guy, Andrew, who sought advice on his relationship from friends… but didn’t like the counsel they gave him. So instead he turned to AI.
Specifically an app called Meeno.
While the AI didn’t offer anything groundbreaking, it did confirm his own instincts that he should confess his feelings. It turned out to be a good move.
And so now he continues to turn to Meeno whenever he feels indecisive about something.
Flirt with my AI first
Another model I found very interesting is Snack, a Gen-z focused dating app that allows you to talk with a potential date’s avatar first.
The idea is that you chat with the avatar, which was trained by the actual person, to get a sense for whether they are a good match or not.
And since the avatar is supposed to be a decent reflection of their ‘personality’ they say that now you’re going to get a much better match for a true lasting relationship.
Whether it actually works or whether people are anyway just selecting the most attractive potential partners.. I do not know. But i’m sure it will improve.
Incumbents like Tinder are also leveraging more AI
Match Group, who owns Tinder, has been introducing more and more AI into their various businesses.
To improve matching, improve communication, and improve the probability of a good relationship.
For example they launched a feature in 2021 that detects potentially offensive messages and prompts the sender to reconsider before they send. So features like this are aimed at making for a better experience while using the app.
Parting thoughts
I find this entire area of dating to be ripe for disruption as it is still very broken. People are lonelier and more depressed then ever.
More and more people are deciding not to get married and not have kids. Creating a very real threat of declining population in many developed countries.
And divorce rates are sky high and only getting worse.
Also it looks to only be getting worse with Gen-Z. Part of the issue that the ex-CEO of Tinder, Renate Nyborg, states is the lack of social skills among many younger people.
It’s for this reason that she founded Meeno in 2022 to address this issue. As she puts it “This generation was lacking even basic social skills, because they spent two years at home staring at screens not being able to pick up basic body language.”
I very much agree that Gen-Z is very much in love with their screens and this probably doesn’t correlate well with building strong, long-lasting relatoinships.
But I am very bullish that technology and AI will help us continue to get better at cracking this problem.
