Tinder has teamed up with OpenAI to bring an AI voice-activated flirting game to the dating app.
As the company revealed in a press release, the awkwardly-named “Game Game” uses OpenAI’s voice mode and GPT-4o reasoning model to encourage users to roleplay various meet-cute scenarios and get points based on how good they are at flirting. (Tinder assured in that same press release that the voice data gleaned from the game wouldn’t be used to train any new AI models.)
In an Instagram video, Spencer Rascoff, the Zillow cofounder who was recently appointed CEO of the Tinder-owning Match Group, demonstrated how the goofy game works. (The 49-year-old executive may have also revealed his own preferences in the video: the AI single he matched with, Mila, was listed as age 32.)
Upon “matching” with “Mila” — who, like the other AI Game Game participants, has a cartoonish avatar and an audibly robotic voice — Rascoff begins one of the most uncomfortable conversational exchanges we’ve ever had the displeasure of witnessing.
At one point during the contrived scenario meant to take place in a kitchen at a party, the Palantir alum tells the AI avatar that he’s having a “great time at this cooking activity,” and soon after informs her she’s “spicy.” It also doesn’t help that the video itself keeps losing focus on Rascoff’s phone screen and misspelling the name “Mila” in its captions.
In an interview with Fast Company, Tinder growth and product VP Hillary Paine seemed to suggest that the game’s goofiness was intentional — and cited metrics from a 2023 company survey as evidence.
“Our Future of Dating report found that 64 percent of young singles are totally fine with a little cringe if it leads to a real connection,” Paine detailed. “We didn’t want it to feel overly polished or intense. Instead, we leaned into humor, awkwardness, and low-pressure moments to help users practice flirting in a fun, playful, and judgment-free way.”
After trying the Game Game out for ourselves, Futurism can definitely agree that it’s not “overly polished,” though perhaps not in the way Tinder’s C-suite intended.
When this reporter opened the in-app game, they forgot, as many are wont to do, to turn off their Bluetooth speaker. As such, the AI single they matched with began talking in stereo — and then, seemingly, responding to its own audio as if it were a real person speaking back.
We’ve reached out to Tinder to ask about that seeming glitch, but it’s still a pretty hilarious exploit for a game — and company — that’s clearly attempting to garner engagement via a clunky and malfunctioning technology.
More on AI love: Woman Alarmed When Date Uses ChatGPT to Psychologically Profile Her
