Dating is Weird: Bumble Founder Touts the Potential of Artificial Intelligence Matchmaking

Disclaimer: While this article is based on swiping right for perfect facts, it also swipes left in a satirical, “It’s not you, it’s me” kinda way.

At the recent Bloomberg Technology Summit conference, Bumble’s founder (and ex-CEO, as of earlier this year) Whitney Wolfe Herd discussed how AI could influence dating. Wolfe Herd said that apps will use AI “to help create a more healthy and equitable” dating experience.

Though we have to admit we do see the appeal of letting someone else handle the unpleasant, awkward parts, too much of the dating pool already seems a little too comfortable in the uncanny valley—and we don’t even mean in Los Angeles. 

The leading blonde girlboss-between-jobs isn’t just theorizing about using AI for dating; this idea has already been tried and (depending on how you define this next word) succeeded: A Russian man built an AI chatbot program that matched him via Tinder to over 5,000 women, chatted with them for months, and winnowed them down to 100 in-person dates (which the bot scheduled via access to his Google calendar). 

Now he’s engaged (after the chatbot convinced him to propose!) to the only woman who does not find any of that to be creepy. All we can say is, if you’re using AI to have game, we’ll wholeheartedly agree that you deserve everything coming your way.

But for people trying to avoid having to date someone who’s way too into crypto, trusting artificial intelligence to find them the right relationship seems like a risky proposition.

Either way, it looks like we’re all lowering the collective bar, again. People let AI chatbots help them write their dating profiles and their in-app banter, and one-third of American men between 18 and 34 have asked ChatGPT for relationship advice, none of which bodes well for the inevitable future reboot of Love, Actually.

Wolfe Herd continued, “You could, in the near future, be talking to your AI dating concierge, and you could share your insecurities… and then it could give you productive tips for communicating with other people.” This… sounds like a therapist?

Wolfe Herd has moved on from the app that launched her career, and based on her comments, perhaps Bumble should do a campaign emphasizing that she is no longer involved. Frankly, we’re just proud of ourselves for getting to the end of the article without mentioning Black Mirror.