Feel like you need a little wingman action on the dating apps? Tinder now has you covered—but at what cost?
That’s right—the infamous dating app recently rolled out an AI “wingman” to help users get more matches. This bot basically just helps you better market yourself to potential suitors by helping you create your profile and even flirt with your matches.
Personally, this sounds a bit…misleading? I mean, if I’m talking to someone on a dating app, I already feel the barrier of, well, the internet. But now, you can’t even trust you’re actually flirting with a real person? I don’t love that.
Of course, I’m not the only person with this reaction. In fact, one person, Dr. Luke Brunning, a lecturer in applied ethics at the University of Leeds, created an open letter calling for more ethical online dating.
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“Match Group, the world’s largest dating app company, recently announced plans to integrate generative AI into its products,” the letter states. “We are writing to urge caution around use of this technology and to encourage companies and regulators to consider carefully its impact on vulnerable groups and wider society.”
“The main risk of hasty adoption of gen-AI, is that without adequate guardrails and education in place, it may degrade an already precarious online environment,” it continued. “Misrepresentation and deception are rife online, and use of gen-AI risks worsening this to the detriment of dating app users who value authentic intimacy.”
The letter also called out some concerning risks, from potential manipulation to increased anxiety about in-person without the presence of an AI “wingman.”
“Many of these companies have correctly identified these social problems,” Dr. Brunning told The Guardian. “But they’re reaching for technology as a way of solving them, rather than trying to do things that really de-escalate the competitiveness, [like] make it more easy for people to be vulnerable, more easy for people to be imperfect, more accepting of each other as ordinary people that aren’t all over 6ft [tall] with a fantastic, interesting career, well written bio, and constant sense of witty banter.”
“Most of us just aren’t like that all the time,” he said.
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