Tinder has paused a new AI tool that is supposed to improve your photos, with one user calling it “extremely violating” and “scary.”
When you use a dating app to try to meet someone, you want guarantees that they are who they say they are. So, with artificial intelligence on the rise, it can be a little tricky when you’re trying to figure that out.
Some apps have integrated AI in a bid to make your matches even more specific, while some users are using third-party AI tools to touch up their photos and produce witty opening lines for them.
Tinder’s use of AI has landed them in hot water a few times, with the most recent coming through the rollout of a new tool - Photo Enhance - which has been altering the appearance of some users.
One user, Jenny Rubin, called the tool “scary” and “extremely violating” after one of her photos was enhanced to give her a smile with teeth, instead of a toothless version.
“I think that it is so irresponsible that Tinder is doing this and I think it is irresponsible that they are offering it, not as an option, but that it is automatic until you turn it off,” Rubin said in her TikTok about the feature.
NBC News reported that some users had told them that the tool had changed their complexion and added facial features that they don’t have. So, instead of enhancing the photos, it had been changing their look altogether.
Tinder responds to AI Photo Enhance tool backlash
Speaking to Mashable, a Tinder spokesperson confirmed that the AI is only in a testing phase, but that it has been paused for now in the United States.
“The feature is in a test phase in limited markets and is available to a subset of profiles that had a detectable technical issue on the first photo, and more than 90 percent of people who receive an enhanced photo keep it," they said.
A spokesperson also said that it affected 0.5% of users, and that the option to ditch the photo enhancement had been available to them.
The app has also been taking action against AI-generated profiles by requiring users to scan their eyes for a “proof of humanity.”43:T118f, Tinder has paused a
