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After swiping aimlessly for years on dating apps like Hinge and Tinder, Emma Inge, a 25-year-old project manager in San Francisco, decided to try something different. In September, after following an ad to the website of a start-up called Known, Ms. Inge spent 20 minutes confiding in an artificial intelligence matchmaker. The matchmaker — essentially an A.I. chatbot — asked her over a phone call what she was looking for in a partner, and she relayed her preferences (athletic) and red flags (codependent). A week later, a notification popped up on her phone. She had a match, and for a one-time fee of $25, she could meet him at a bar. “With how dating is nowadays, I thought, ‘Oh, well, let’s try it,’” Ms. Inge said. “Let’s do it for the plot.” Her experience is an example of how A.I. is transforming the dating app industry. As start-ups with A.I. matchmakers pop up, the biggest dating apps — Hinge, Tinder, Bumble and Grindr — are trying to harness the technology to reinvent themselves. They are ushering in a new era of online dating where people pay for a few premium A.I. matches a week, instead of subscribing to an endless stream of profiles. “A.I. is already playing a big role in our business, but I think it has the potential to be a step change — the next technological shift,” Hesam Hosseini, the chief operating officer of Match Group, which owns Hinge and Tinder, said in an interview. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. Already a subscriber? Log in. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
