18 pointsby mraniki5 hours ago20 comments
  • RajT88a minute ago
    > gAI

    I cannot speak to the app or this service tier, but this company has some great pun writers. A+

  • bambax5 hours ago
    > app that helps you connect with less effort and makes every conversation count

    What makes things count is most often precisely the effort spent on them.

    • ra4 hours ago
      I guess you're not the target market
      • antisthenesan hour ago
        Target market being whales who don't engage in critical thinking much?
    • torginus3 hours ago
      this is like when companies go we take your privacy extremely seriously, now hand over your personal data that we should have no business accessing
  • e1ghtSpace5 hours ago
    "Powered by gAI™"

    I wonder if it would be worth creating an app that just sends you on dates using AI. Like, you don't even get to look at the other person's profile. Then afterwards you would report to the app whether you would go on another date with the person you just went out with or not.

    • suzzer994 hours ago
      Or just have your AI and their AI go on a date and report back how it went.
      • bonesss4 hours ago
        Well, 3 dates, so that the AIs can figure out if their MCP integrations are compatible without feeling too rushed or cheap about it.
    • rich_sasha4 hours ago
      To be honest, sadly, I think you're onto something.

      I can imagine the AI agents chatting to each other, figuring out what you like. I can see the chain of thought going "I can't say XYZ is lazy and rough, instead I'll say he saves his energy for what really matters, and lives to the full".

      So many apps are just image attractiveness scoring plus some superficial conversation with pleasantries, which are both things AI do well at.

      • Eddy_Viscosity22 hours ago
        It's also the plot to "Her". People fall in love with AI, but then the AIs start dating each other AIs and dump the humans.
    • hleszek4 hours ago
      Isn't that a Black Mirror episode?
      • piva004 hours ago
        It's also the premise of the show Soulmates.

        Another instance of "Don't Create the Torment Nexus" from the too tech-minded people.

      • joshstrange3 hours ago
        “Hang the DJ” S04E04

        I really liked that episode, it wasn’t quite as dark as some episodes IMHO.

  • cultofmetatron2 hours ago
    For $500 a month...

    1. you can hire a personal trainer and get shredded

    2. you can hire a nutritionist and eat healthier food

    3. you can take up an expensive hobby that makes you a more interesting person

    4. you can take a online course and learn a skill to increase your income.

    Any of the above will increase your chances of attracting someone vs whatever timesink this is.

    • pgsandstroma few seconds ago
      You might not fully grasp what Grindr is all about...
  • ghtaylor5 hours ago
    Think what you want, but trademarking "gAI" is quite the flex
    • xg153 hours ago
      Also EDGE...

      The whole thing could be a decent April's fool setup. A pity its February.

    • manugo44 hours ago
      Google invented it first. g.ai
    • RupertSalt4 hours ago
      How do you pronounce that?

      I suppose, either way, they win!

      • nusl4 hours ago
        Gay-i perhaps
  • ladidahh4 hours ago
    This has to be the most effective ad campaign they have done, I have seen some variation of this story on every platform I use. I don't think the brand has a lot of goodwill, but my awareness has gone through the roof due to this AI push
    • rsynnottan hour ago
      I'd argue that they don't need an ad campaign, tbh. Everyone already knows it exists; in regions where it's popular it's generally due to the lack of a decent local competitor. As you say, no-one really _likes_ Grindr.
  • Deukhoofd5 hours ago
    Apps that are focused on human connection sound to me like they're the absolute worst target for going 'AI-first'
    • maininformer5 hours ago
      Grindr would be exempt by that token then
      • Melonai3 hours ago
        Grindr is about a lot of things but human connection is... not one of them. Except if you mean that kind of quite literal "connection".
  • rsynnottan hour ago
    Another gay hookup app surveyed its user base on this a while back. Spoiler, user base is lukewarm at best on the ol' magic robots, unlikely to pay $500/month for them: https://www.romeo.com/en/blog/ai_and_gay_dating/

    Minor caveat is that Romeo is mostly only big in Europe, and Europe _does_ tend a bit more AI-sceptical than everywhere else. But, still, not looking great.

  • mbix775 hours ago
    Why has the world not made an open-source zero trust dating app? It's such a basic need it seems for people, but the current app landscape is filled with scams, dark patterns, selling your data, trying to keep you locked in,...
    • woooooo5 hours ago
      I'm guessing it gets overrun by spam, scams and porn bots even faster if its a low budget community thing.
      • rwmj5 hours ago
        Not to mention the gigantic legal iceberg the first time someone is attacked or worse after meeting through the app.
    • Almondsetat5 hours ago
      If I'm going out with someone the last thing I'd want is zero trust. In fact, I'd want the platform to thoroughly confirm everyone's identity
      • OJFord4 hours ago
        I'm not sure if I don't understand your comment, or you're misunderstanding 'zero trust':

        > implemented by establishing identity verification, validating device compliance prior to granting access, and ensuring least privilege access to only explicitly-authorized resources.

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero_trust_architecture

        • 4 hours ago
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        • Almondsetat4 hours ago
          I was thinking about zero trust in the context of simply confirming if a user is 18+, where the identity provider only returns a true or false withour exposing more info. For a dating app you'd want the identity provider to confirm a whole lot more, which might not even be present in the ID
    • stevekemp4 hours ago
      Back in the day I used livejournal and for a couple of years in a row I setup a matchmaking site that paired users up.

      You'd login to my site and see a list of all the blogs you followed, then you could nominate five of them as people you were interested in.

      If they did the same, you'd both get a notification.

      It was a cute system and because it was restricted to selecting only from people you already followed it was nice and local. The code was released at the time, but has now become lost in the winds.

      I could almost imagine setting it up again for instagram, facebook, or similar, but .. getting users would be hard I imagine, and I'm sure the companies would try to sue or prohibit it.

    • embedding-shape5 hours ago
      Haven't seen any "zero trust" dating apps but there are plenty of free ones (some operating with a "donations" model, like duolicious). How do you envision a zero trust dating app to work in practice?
    • ben_w4 hours ago
      > Why has the world not made an open-source zero trust dating app?

      What would that even mean?

      Not the open source part, what is a "zero trust dating app"?

      Given what we see in other primates, abusive spouses almost certainly predate anatomically modern humans, while gold diggers will have likely existed from the moment we abstracted money in the sense of "rare shiny rock that is a token of power to be spent in the future".

  • thomond4 hours ago
    Why would they even need an genAI? Grindr isn't even a dating site, it's a hookup site. A few if statements would do it.
    • an hour ago
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  • seydor4 hours ago
    It's like paying streetwalkers, but Grindr is their pimp. One could make the argument that they re taking advantage pf them
    • embedding-shape4 hours ago
      Is this argument specific to Grindr or you just dislike any dating app?

      FWIW I'd personally think most dating apps are taking advantage of people one way or another.

      • an hour ago
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  • dqv4 hours ago
    Ok y'all wrap it up, it's a bubble.

    I can definitely see portions of the userbase paying $500/month to use AI to screen out "fats and fems" tho

  • falloutx3 hours ago
    This is actually a genius level move from Grindr. Anthropic/OpenAI can only dream of the stable userbase like this. Few years ago I even suggested they should add actual brainstorming and prototyping features like Framer for bros to discuss their business ideas. Dopamine rush of grindr notification into my AI chats would literally be insane levels of productivity.
    • rsynnottan hour ago
      > Few years ago I even suggested they should add actual brainstorming and prototyping features like Framer for bros to discuss their business ideas.

      It appears that you have a productivity fetish. Fortunately, there's already a hookup app for people with that particular kink; it's called LinkedIn.

  • gib4444 hours ago
    Grindr is trash. It's mostly full of desperate incompatible people (i.e. same sexual position, mostly passives), open couples who just want dopamine hits and other time-wasters. Good luck with offering a $500 sub!

    You'd actually be better off spending $500/mo on an escort or two. Surely they've realised at that price point, that's a serious competitor

    • kotaKat4 hours ago
      Five hundred bucks gets you into a lot of bathhouses a month.
  • christkv5 hours ago
    lol wut. What exactly is the AI doing for 500 USD a month?

    New AI features include recaps of previous conversations with other users, daily personalised profile recommendations and profile insights to help users identify who they are more likely to be compatible with.

    so basically bullshit?

    how thirsty do you have to be do pay for this?

    • bondarchuk5 hours ago
      Sortition, you get to date with other people who also have 500 bucks to spare. Any features you get are just window dressing.
      • Iulioh4 hours ago
        But would you date someone who WOULD spend 500 bucks on a dating app?

        IIRC Tinder premium was cheaper the more attractive you are, because if you attract more people you are less likely to buy it.

  • hsbauauvhabzb4 hours ago
    Grindr is well past enshittified. I do wish them luck selling ai to all 5 of their users though.
    • falloutx3 hours ago
      Grindr is next Google. Sometimes when I need to search something, I dont even open google or chatGPT, i just type into the DMs of someone and they refuse to answer.
  • jchip3033 hours ago
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  • coo5 hours ago
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  • whatsupdog5 hours ago
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