Tinder announces AI tool to help select your profile pic

After teasing an AI-powered tool to help pick profile photos last year, Tinder formally announced "Photo Selector" today. The feature uses artificial intelligence to assist with choosing profile photos from what you have on your device.

Here's how Photo Selector works: Take a selfie for facial recognition (if you're verified on Tinder, you're already familiar with this), allow Tinder access to your camera roll, and Photo Selector will curate images for you to review. You then decide which ones you want to add to your Tinder profile.

A majority of singles, 52 percent, said it's hard to select a profile image, while 68 percent said an AI feature for this task would be helpful, according to a recent Opinium survey Tinder commissioned of 7,000 18-25 year old singles who are on dating apps. The same survey reported that young adult singles spend an average of 33 minutes selecting the right profile picture — so Photo Selector would, in theory, cut that down.

Dating apps have jumped at the opportunity to add AI to its features even before the launch of ChatGPT. Tinder has features "Does This Bother You?" and "Are You Sure?", both of which use AI to sniff out potentially offensive messages. Tinder launched these in 2020 and 2021, respectively.

This year, Tinder competitor Bumble launched an AI-powered tool to weed out scam profiles. Bumble recently announced a different approach to using AI about profile photos: users can now report suspected AI-generated photos and videos.

First look at Tinder's Photo Selector AI tool. Credit: Tinder

CEO of Tinder Faye Iosotaluno commented in the Photo Selector press release that the app aims to develop AI to assist users in making decisions, "not to make them for you."

"Our commitment to our users is clear and equally applies to our view of AI: at Tinder, we develop innovative technologies to create a safer space for people to make authentic connections," Iosotaluno concluded.

Mashable predicted that daters will move away from apps in the latter half of 2024, so we'll see how the addition of AI features plays into that. Photo Selector will be available in the U.S. this month, and other countries later this summer.