Remember Facebook Dating? The dating service connected to your Facebook profile that no-one asked for? It originally launched in Colombia in 2018 as a pilot before expanding to the U.S. in 2019 and 50+ other countries shortly after.
While it never exactly become a cultural dating phenomenon, it has become one more Meta product that Mark Zuckerberg can inject AI into!
Meta released two new AI features to Facebook Dating last week:
- Dating Assistant – an AI chatbot aimed at helping you find better matches and “avoid swipe fatigue” by enabling you to enter text prompts about what you’re looking for such as “just want to smash.” LOL. Actually Facebook gave the example, “Find me a Brooklyn girl in tech.”
- Meet Cute – a feature that automatically matches you with a surprise person based on Facebook’s matching algorithm. You can then choose to chat with the match or unmatch them. Meet Cute is initially offering weekly surprise matches, but may increase the frequency soon.
Fortune points out that other dating apps are also adding AI features:
- Tinder has an AI photo selector that automatically makes your featured image the one that gets the most right swipes.
- Hinge has an AI feature that gives users an option to improve their responses to profile prompts.
- Bumble offers an AI-powered ice-breaker feature to begin conversations.
- Hinge’s CEO told Fast Company he expects “mass swiping” to become “arcane” within three to five years as users turn to AI to find matches.
Amber Lee, a matchmaker and relationship expert, thinks otherwise:
“My first thought is, these new AI features may feel like too little, too late. Gen Z already associates Facebook as a platform for an older demographic, so this feels more like a PR stunt than something groundbreaking in the dating space… Gen Z is likely to be turned off by the inauthentic nature of AI-polished profiles. These singles are seeking genuine connection, not one [run] by AI.”
It’s inevitable that AI will soon play a bigger role in online dating (as it does with any online service), but are these the AI dating features that people actually want (or need)? How about instead…
- AI security features that detect inconsistencies across a user’s stated info to help flag catfishing accounts.
- Anti-crazy filters that attempt to stop a match from getting too aggressive too quickly. “It’s 3am. Are you sure you want to send a message with just a single question mark?”
- AI profile building that learns your values, likes, dislikes, and what you’re looking for in a partner through your conversations with matches, as opposed to just your profile inputs.
- Suggesting local spots for first dates or meetups based on your common interests.
- Not matching Bernie Babes with die hard Trump Dudes.
- AI ghosting notifications to help soften the blow when you’re unmatched.
Instead of new AI-powered safety features, Meta employed its Superintelligence Team to come up with “surprise matches.” Nice one!
