Facebook is getting an AI dating assistant

Meta announced on Monday that it’s bringing an AI assistant^[1] to Facebook Dating.

This chatbot is intended to help users find matches who are more closely tailored to what they are looking for. For example, Meta might suggest users ask it to find “a Brooklyn girl in tech” or a user could ask the AI to help refine their profile.

Meta also says that it’s “helping people avoid swipe fatigue” with a new feature called Meet Cute, which gives users a weekly “surprise match” chosen based on its algorithm.

The company says Facebook Dating matches among adults ages 18 to 29 have increased 10% year-over-year growth, with hundreds of thousands of users in that age group creating Facebook Dating profiles each month. That’s small compared to competitors like Tinder, which has about 50 million daily active users^[2], and Hinge’s 10 million daily active users.

AI features have already become the norm in mainstream dating apps. Even newer dating apps like Sitch^[3] have attempted to differentiate themselves with their AI features.

Match Group — the owner of Tinder, Hinge, OKCupid, and others — entered a partnership^[4] with OpenAI last year, which is part of the dating giant’s $20 million-plus investment in AI. That’s a big bet, especially given the financial struggles^[5] of Match Group, which has lost about 68%^[6] of its stock price in the last five years.

So far, this investment has produced features like an AI photo selector^[7] tool to Tinder, which scans your cameral roll to help choose profile images, as well as AI-powered matching^[8]. Hinge has a feature that lets users improve their responses^[9] to profile prompts with AI.

Bumble has added similar AI features, and founder Whitney Wolfe Herd even ruffled some feathers last year when she suggested that one day, users could have personal “AI concierges”^[10] that go on dates with other people’s AI to determine compatibility.