Every dating app has AI now. Can it help make better matches?

A new dating app called Known, which went live earlier today in San Francisco, wants to offer users a dating experience that is far less gamified—and far more enabled by artificial intelligence. The app, which uses voice-based conversations with an AI to match people to prospective romantic partners, is the latest evidence that the next generation of dating apps isn’t looking to maximize matches. 

In other words, there’s no swiping. Known, founded by former Stanford University students Celeste Amadon and Asher Allen, uses an AI-based chat interface that interviews prospective daters and gauges their interests and values. Then, the app uses a model—which the company says was designed in-house and based on compatibility and chemistry research—to pair them with one person (and only one person) for a potential date. Known also takes care of personalized introductions and assists with restaurant bookings. 

“We’re able to view people on their entire nuanced selves and find people that are most likely to get along and enjoy each other. And that doesn’t have to come from strict principles,” Amadon tells Fast Company. “There are standard things that we need to know to be able to do good matching, like your age, or ‘Do you live in San Francisco or New York?’ But from there, a lot of it is kind of user-guided.”

She adds: “The real core difference between us and a large dating app is that we are incentivized and built to try and get people on dates. Other dating apps are incentivized to try and lengthen their retention because they’re subscription-based businesses.”

Known’s model, Amadon says, charges people to actually set up a date with their matches, as opposed to subscription tiers of an app like Tinder, where users might pay extra to access certain features and the ability to send an unlimited number of “likes” to other people. (Of course, all dating apps need to focus, in part, on identifying new customers, since some share of their users will, eventually, find love and no longer need a dating app.) 

The app’s release comes as both newcomer and veteran dating platforms embrace artificial intelligence-based features. Justin McLeod, the founder of Hinge, is planning to launch Overtone, which was initially built from a small team at Hinge, and he says it aims to “combine cutting-edge AI capabilities with deep respect for the messy, human journey of connection.” There’s also the relatively new Rizz app, an AI dating assistant that was designed to coach people through awkward digital small talk. Last fall, another platform, called Three Day Rule, introduced Tai, an AI matchmaker that’s supposed to be trained on compatibility data coalesced by human matchmakers. 

The big companies are also leaning into artificial intelligence-based features. The Match Group—which owns Tinder, OkCupid, and Hinge—has a whole page dedicated to its principles for using the technology. The company says that when it comes to AI, it prioritizes “explainability” and “authenticity” among its core values to foster trust, safety, and meaningful connections. Match’s hiring page shows that it’s looking to fill plenty of machine-learning roles, too.

Last December, Hinge released a new AI feature that’s supposed to help move conversations forward by using generative AI to guide people in crafting their initial messages to others. Tinder has also said it’s using AI-powered matching, which factors in data that can include your app activity, your answers to questions, and the way you’ve tagged photos on the app.  Even Facebook Dating is offering AI-powered advice for users. 

The idea is to aim for quality (rather than quantity) of matches, especially as interest in (and the appeal to pay for) swiping through profiles falls. Bumble has lost 9% of subscribers in the past year, The New York Times reported in November, and the Match Group has lost 5%.

The rise of the AI dating interview

A smaller number of these companies, including Known, are embracing voice-powered AI, too. Tinder partnered with OpenAI last year to offer a voice-based game meant to evaluate people’s flirting skills. Hinge added audio features and voice notes back in 2021, and the lesser-known Switch dating app encourages users to connect first through audio conversations.

At least in Known’s case, people communicate with the app by talking to it. For instance, the app might ask you where you grew up and how you ended up in your current city, and users might end up sharing details about childhood experiences. From there, the system is supposed to pick up preferences that a prospective dater might have, based on what’s said in the conversation, as well as factors like tone and intonation. That information is later fed into the company’s matching model. (Known says that recordings of the calls themselves are not saved.) The app doesn’t currently pick up on the way people’s voices sound, but the company says it’s interested in exploring and analyzing the complexity of people’s speech in the future. 

It’s still early days for Known, but the model has some traction. Seven thousand people participated in a beta testing round last year, and Amadon says that she and cofounder Allen have heard from several couples that connected and are still together. The company recently raised nearly $10 million, with support from the venture capital firm Forerunner. 

“After the dates, we actually debrief with users to find out how it went—which means that we’re able to understand more about who you’re looking for and get better at finding that person over time,” emphasizes Amadon.