Tinder and Hinge safety boss on finding love with AI

Dating apps use AI to fight the fakes AI creates

Match Group's head of trust and safety argues that dating apps face a different problem from social media. Nobody can go viral and the apps are not free speech venues, so the scarce commodity is proof that the person on the other end is real. AI cuts both ways there, and Roth thinks regulators are watching the wrong risk while everyday fraud gets worse.

Takeaways

• Face Check cut bad-actor exposure by over 60%. Match asks for a video selfie at sign-up and compares it with profile photos. Roth says this cut exposure to bad actors on Tinder and Hinge by more than 60% and reports by more than 40%.
• AI both blocks fraud and accelerates it. Face Check shows the defensive use. On the other side, deepfaked images and large language models make scams more persuasive, and agentic AI lets fraudsters run accounts at scale. Roth says AI language persuades better than ordinary human conversation.
• Fake accounts are almost the whole job. Roth says roughly 98% of Match's moderation actions target fake accounts and bots. Authenticity is the starting point of every online interaction, and about two-thirds of UK singles call it the most important thing on a dating app.
• Dating apps are not built to go viral. No profile spreads the way a post does, so incentives differ. Roth says dating apps are not free speech platforms and value safety and respect more, since women being disrespected or sexualised drives users off.
• AI rules miss everyday fraud. Roth argues the policy debate is too absorbed by existential risk and not focused enough on election security and day-to-day fraud. He is encouraged that lawsuits and investigations in the UK and US are following harms faster than they did for social media.
• Match bets on in-person singles events. UK research shows a third of singles met nobody new face to face in the past month and only 4% of Gen Z met their last partner in a pub. Roth wants lower-pressure events such as pickleball, then finding that person on Tinder.
• Big tech is retreating from safety spending. Roth says major technology firms have stepped back from online safety investment even as regulators push the other way. The feedback loop for AI harms runs in months and weeks rather than years, unlike social media's decade.

Fortson and Prescott on whether dating apps help

• Fortson says he is sceptical AI will improve dating and doubts dating apps are a net positive for society, lamenting the loss of spontaneity such as the random chat at a bar.
• Prescott says something can be learned from the vulnerability of asking for a phone number, and contrasts the dystopian AI narrative with Roth's prosaic worries about disinformation and chatbots pumping out nonsense.