Tinder plans to let machine vision algorithms loose on your camera roll. Instead of building a profile on their own, AI will scan users\u2019 locally-stored photos\u2014everything from gym selfies to pictures of their family, sensitive documents and dick pics\u2014to help construct profiles by determining what users\u2019 interests and values are.Dating apps are the go-to way for people to connect romantically in the modern dating world. As AI has risen in popularity thanks to services like ChatGPT, however, users are suffering the consequences of problems like bots and AI-generated messages infiltrating dating apps. For some people, the experience is less authentic than ever as people offload get-to-know-you conversations to artificial intelligence.\u00a0The feature is still being tested, with early access only available in Australia beginning this month. Although Tinder says it attempts to filter out explicit images, users may still be concerned with Tinder’s AI scanning their entire camera roll. \u201cIt’s up to you to figure out what you’re comfortable sharing back with Tinder,\u201d Tinder Head of Product Mark Kantor told 404 Media. Still, users can\u2019t pick individual photos they want analyzed or ignored. Tinder\u2019s safeguards are meant to filter out explicit images or text, and to blur faces before insights are processed.\u00a0Tinder claims its AI is looking for themes and interests, like pets, activities, or food, as well as photos that are well-lit or well-framed. In theory, this will help users decide the best way to present themselves online. \u201cThere is some art to it,\u201d\u00a0 Kantor said. \u201cIt’s not just the science.\u201d (It\u2019s unclear what happens if your camera roll is full of bad photos.)\u00a0Eventually, Kantor said, Tinder will add the ability to turn photos into larger collages for their profiles. \u201cWe do give people a pretty big variety of photos so we’re not going to go from 30,000 to three.\u201d Kantor said it looks for subject matter and tries to group insights based on similar interests. \u201cIf I have one dog photo of 20,000, I’m not really a dog person,\u201d Kantor said as an example.\u00a0\u00a0Tinder has already leaned heavily into AI. Kantor told 404 Media that artificial intelligence is writing more than half the app\u2019s code these days. Several of its new AI-driven features include photo enhancements, match recommendations, and photo scanning. Kantor said that the app\u2019s use of AI is to \u201chelp you express yourself,\u201d but not to do so on the dater\u2019s behalf.\u00a0If the camera roll is a window into the modern soul, it is also a goldmine of personal information. Depending on what someone photographs, their camera roll could include everything from photos of sensitive documents, like banking or medical info, to nudes. It\u2019s a potential security nightmare, especially when people are sharing intimate details about themselves or their dating lives. Security failures on dating apps like Tea put users in danger: multiple breaches exposed personal information, including photos, driver\u2019s license information, and direct messages, before it was finally yanked from the App Store. Tinder has had its own privacy and security issues. Last year, we revealed the dating app was one of thousands co-opted to mine location data. In January, hackers claimed to have stolen internal data from Match Group, which owns Tinder.\u00a0According to Kantor, Tinder isn\u2019t storing the data it pulls from photos on its end. \u201cIt’s purely on your device,\u201d he said. Tinder won\u2019t scan your deleted photos, or anything from your phone\u2019s hidden folder; after it\u2019s finished scouring your images, the AI selects specific photos for users to choose to upload to their public profile. If the AI\u2019s categorization of a user as, say, a dog person is inaccurate, users can note that feedback and choose to either accept or reject the AI\u2019s insights. Anything that doesn\u2019t go on someone\u2019s profile is deleted, and if users want new insights later, they\u2019ll have to do the process all over again, according to Tinder.\u00a0\u201cIn talking to this new generation of daters, they want something different,\u201d Kantor told 404 Media.\u201cI think you see connection, that hasn’t changed. I don’t think they’re frustrated with dating. They’re frustrated with all of the friction and the dead ends with dating.\u201d\u00a0Megan Farokhmanesh is a games and culture reporter whose works has appeared in the New York Times, Wired, Axios, and The Verge. Find her on Bluesky.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"