How To Get Dates On Tinder: AI Could Be The Answer

Artificial intelligence may have no need for love, but it may soon be helping you find it. Tinder CEO Sean Rad said the company is exploring the possibility of integrating AI into the popular dating app as a means of helping people meet a match.

Rad spoke at tech conference Start-Up Grind in Silicon Valley last week, where he spoke about what the future holds for his service. While Tinder has already been a leader in online dating, Rad sees the future of matchmaking as being even more driven by technology, including artificial intelligence.

In five years' time, Tinder might be so good, you might be like “Hey Siri, what’s happening tonight?’" Rad said. "And Tinder might pop up and say 'There’s someone down the street you might be attracted to. She’s also attracted to you. She’s free tomorrow night. We know you both like the same band, and it’s playing - would you like us to buy you tickets?’… and you have a match."

Rad acknowledged the idea is "a little scary" for a lot of people, especially those already wary of exploring the world of online dating. But user data has always been a part of Tinder's equation for matching people, and it will likely only get access to more information as time goes on.

Currently, Tinder counts on relatively basic parameters when it's pairing people. The app has access to a user's age, location and mutual friends and interests based on what a person has liked on Facebook. Tinder has already experimented lightly with algorithmic help for daters, including a feature that helps users identify their best pictures.

Rad imagines a world where artificial intelligence—and the ongoing willingness of people to surrender their information—may eventually lead to better matches based on more intimate details that point to potential compatibility.

He also believes the future of online dating will go beyond the swipe-left-or-right interface that has helped make Tinder such a hit. Augmented reality may eventually bring matching into the real world.

The promise of AR would create a sort of overlay on people in real time, promising to put information about a person's interests, availability, and potential attraction to other users on display.

"You can imagine how, with augmented reality, that experience could happen in the room, in real time. The impact is profound as these devices get closer to your senses, to your eyes, to your experiences,” Rad said.