Grindr, probably the most well-known homosexual relationship app, is reportedly testing an AI bot that’s designed to behave as a wingman for its customers.
Grindr’s AI wingman will likely be particularly tailor-made for the app’s LGBTQ person base, the Wall Avenue Journal reported. Customers will work together with the wingman like a chatbot. Presently, a small group of customers is testing the function, Grindr’s CEO George Arison mentioned in an interview with WSJ. The group will broaden to 1,000 customers by the tip of 2024 and 10,000 in 2025. The plan is for the chatbot to be obtainable to Grindr’s 14 million customers by 2027 on the newest, Arison instructed WSJ.
The wingman will apparently hold observe of customers’ favourite matches and make ideas starting from long-term relationship candidates thus far spots. Afterward, the wingman might be able to make restaurant reservations and converse with different wingman bots so customers have a “strong view” of one another by the point they meet in particular person, WSJ reported.
The Wall Avenue Journal listed some preliminary points with this concept. For one, Grindr wants to make sure this would possibly not be a privateness and security threat in areas the place it is not secure to be outwardly homosexual. Moreover, Grindr bought person location knowledge by way of advert networks for years, and AI knowledge may pose one other privateness threat.
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WSJ claims an answer will likely be an “empathetic AI know-how” by way of AI mannequin firm Ex-human, which Grindr made a cope with final yr. The mannequin Ex-human creates will likely be educated on romantic dialog and made “extra homosexual.” It is unclear how these fashions will resolve these potential privateness considerations. Grindr can also be in a lawsuit within the UK about revealing customers’ HIV standing.
Moreover these potential points, Grindr customers are presently pissed off with the app resulting from rising product points and paywalls. In an announcement to Mashable earlier this month regarding this frustration, a Grindr spokesperson mentioned, “Since a significant funding in modernizing our chat platform earlier this yr, we’re conscious that our customers have skilled technical challenges on Grindr.”
It stays to be seen, then, how the app’s infrastructure will cope with the introduction of a chatbot, and likewise how Grindr customers will react to it. When Bumble founder Whitney Wolfe Herd described a possible “AI relationship concierge” in an interview in Might, the response was overwhelmingly unfavorable. Contemplating that Grindr is understood for fast hookups — VICE described it as a “24/7 merry-go-round of intercourse in your fast locale” in 2022 — customers might not need an AI bot intervening with their carnival experience.
Mashable has reached out to Grindr for touch upon the AI wingman.