Swipeless online dating? How AI is reshaping the search for love

8 min Click here to listen to this article Share via Close extra sharing options Email Facebook X LinkedIn Threads Reddit WhatsApp Copy Link URL Copied! Print 0:00 0:00 1x This is read by an automated voice. Please report any issues or inconsistencies here. See more from the L.A. Times in Google Search. Set us as preferred Tired of the same old dating apps like Bumble and Hinge, Marie Lansley tried talking to an artificial intelligence matchmaker. For roughly 15 minutes, she chatted with an AI voice on the dating app Known, answering questions about her upbringing, personality, education, lessons from past relationships and whether she’s looking for a serious relationship or something more casual. “Divorced at 36. Yea, you’re not here to waste time. The way you build your days matter,” the AI voice told her after Lansley replied she was looking for a serious relationship. Weeks later, the San Francisco resident got a match along with a written summary of why the pair could be compatible. But the stranger wasn’t her type and she wasn’t keen on paying $15 to meet up. Startups like Known are roping in new users by hosting in-person dating events in San Francisco. “I want to be able to use AI to improve efficiency in dating and to help navigate a pretty frustrating dating landscape. But there are just some things that are so deeply human that AI technology cannot capture,” said Lansley, who has posted about her dating experience on social media. Singles like Lansley are dipping their toes into the wacky world of AI dating but they’re also skeptical if it will make it easier to find love. Online dating is ripe for disruption, and tech companies big and small are turning to AI as a potential solution to find people better matches more quickly and help them improve their chances of landing a date. For years, people have been frustrated and exhausted by the seemingly endless amount of swiping and small talk that go nowhere on dating apps. They’re turning to in-person options such as running clubs, pickleball and speed dating but finding the right partner is still tough. Online dating remains a popular way people search for a partner but some are dumping the platforms. Tinder’s monthly active users in March dropped 7% year-over-year, though its parent company Match Group noted that the rate of decline has been slowing as it revamps the app. West Hollywood-based Tinder, which has roughly 50 million monthly users, has been experimenting with using AI to analyze a user’s camera roll and recommend better matches. Known, an AI dating app, has its branding plastered on a storefront in the Marina District in San Francisco. Business With new leadership and product releases, Tinder is trying to stay relevant as new platforms focus on in-person events and cater to younger users tired of swiping. Its rival Bumble — an app that initially stood out for having women message their matches first — saw its paying users drop 21% to 3.2 million in the first quarter this year compared to 2025. The company has been working on AI matchmaking and plans to ditch swiping in the last three months of the year in select markets. Even dating services that have grown users such as West Hollywood-based Grindr, an app for the LGBTQ+ community, and Facebook Dating, which is included in the main social network, are also leveraging AI more. And new AI dating startups are popping up in California, New York and other states that could change the way people find a partner online. Former Hinge co-founder and Chief Executive Justin McLeod is working on an AI dating app called Overtone, stating on its website that “AI, if used correctly, can help us invent an entirely new way for people to find their partners that is far more personal, far more efficient, and far more effective.” Some of those startups started in the San Francisco Bay area, where AI dating apps are hosting parties, speed dating, coffee meet-ups and other in-person events to rope people into using their new service. Singles who downloaded the Known dating app mingle over drinks at Left Door, a cocktail lounge in San Francisco, on Thursday. On one recent Thursday night, dating app startup Known hosted a dating event at a swanky San Francisco cocktail lounge for people who completed their matchmaking call on the app. The event’s description said attendees would be greeted with “champagne, caviar bumps, and a mysterious envelope” that reveals who the AI matchmaker paired them up with. Known Chief Executive and co-founder Celeste Amadon, who dropped out of Stanford University to create the AI dating app, said Americans are spending more time alone at home as online services have made it more convenient to do everything from getting food delivered, online shop and date. Young people complain about traditional dating apps yet they’re also still on them. “The more I understood today’s dating apps, the more clear it became that they have been for the better part of two decades no

Swipeless online dating? How AI is reshaping the search for love

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Swipeless online dating? How AI is reshaping the search for love

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