New Tinder Game 'Lets You Flirt With AI Characters. Three of Them Dumped Me'

Tinder 'is experimenting with a chatbot that claims to help users improve their flirting skills,' notes Washington Post internet-culture reporter Tatum Hunter. The chatbot is available only to users in the United States on iPhones for a limited time, and powered by OpenAI's GPT-4o each character 'kicks off an improvised conversation, and the user responds out loud with something flirty...'

'Three of them dumped me.'

You can win points for banter the app deems 'charming' or 'playful.' You lose points if your back-and-forth seems 'cheeky' or 'quirky'... It asked me to talk out loud into my phone and win the romantic interest of various AI characters.
The first scenario involved a financial analyst named Charles, whom I've supposedly run into at the Tokyo airport after accidentally swapping our luggage. I tried my best to be polite to the finance guy who stole my suitcase, asking questions about his travel and agreeing to go to coffee. But the game had some critical feedback: I should try to connect more emotionally using humor or stories from my life. My next go had me at a Dallas wedding trying to flirt with Andrew, a data analyst who had supposedly stumbled into the venue, underdressed, because he'd been looking for a quiet spot to... analyze data. This time I kept things playful, poking fun at Andrew for crashing a wedding. Andrew didn't like that. I'd 'opted to disengage' by teasing this person instead of helping him blend in at the wedding, the app said. A failure on my part, apparently — and also a reminder why generative AI doesn't belong everywhere...

Going in, I was worried Tinder's AI characters would outperform the people I've met on dating apps and I'd fall down a rabbit hole of robot love. Instead, they behaved in a way typical for chatbots: Drifting toward biased norms and failing to capture the complexity of human emotions and interactions. The 'Game Game' seemed to replicate the worst parts of flirting — the confusion, the unclear expectations, the uncomfortable power dynamics — without the good parts, like the spark of curiosity about another person. Tinder released the feature on April Fools' Day, likely as a bid for impressions and traffic. But its limitations overshadowed its novelty...

Hillary Paine, Tinder's vice president of product, growth and revenue, said in an email that AI will play a 'big role in the future of dating and Tinder's evolution.' She said the game is meant to be silly and that the company 'leaned into the campiness.' Gen Z is a socially anxious generation, Paine said, and this age group is willing to endure a little cringe if it leads to a 'real connection.'
The article suggests it's another example of companies 'eager to incorporate this newish technology, often without considering whether it adds any value for users.' But 'As apps like Tinder and Bumble lose users amid 'dating app burnout,' the companies are turning to AI to win new growth.' (The dating app Rizz 'uses AI to autosuggest good lines to use,' while Teaser 'spins up a chatbot that's based on your personality, meant to talk and behave like you would during a flirty chat,' and people 'are forming relationships with AI companion bots by the millions.') And the companion-bot company Replika 'boasts more than 30 million users...'

Read more of this story at Slashdot.