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AI apps are being used to help people connect on dating apps

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Its promoters say artificial intelligence can do all sorts of things for you - do your homework, make art for you, even give you travel advice. But can it help you land a date?

DMITRI MIRAKYAN: I remember reading a book called "Be More Chill" about a computer that you could put into your ear that would tell you what to say so that you would sound cool and fit in.

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Dmitri Mirakyan is an entrepreneur and programmer. He's 28 years old. And he built a version of that computer in the form of an app.

MIRAKYAN: Spent the weekend building a prototype and very quickly realized that it was already quite a bit better at texting than I was.

INSKEEP: Mirakyan partnered with 30-year-old data scientist Jeff Li. At the time, Li was creating a program to make it easier to find a date on Tinder.

JEFF LI: I was generally very interested in the dating space - not because of the space itself - because I really wanted to just solve my own problem. Like, I'm - for me, personally, never have been, like, a natural with dating.

MARTIN: Li says the duo used their own money to create the app YourMove.AI

LI: I see it as kind of a dating assistant that will help you create openers, help you craft replies and help you write your own profile.

INSKEEP: It draws on artificial intelligence to create charming dating profiles and witty banter.

MARTIN: But as you might imagine, the idea of using AI to get a date has prompted - we'll call it skepticism. Liz Plank says she gets why it could be useful, but...

LIZ PLANK: Dating can be a little bit like playing the lottery and not knowing what you're going to get. And so AI being used in addition to all of the uncertainties that come with dating, I can understand why that would make people feel nervous.

INSKEEP: Plank is a journalist and the author of "For The Love Of Men."

PLANK: They're using a tool not necessarily to edit their appearance, but to edit their personality in order to, you know, deceive, potentially, someone into thinking that they have a certain personality type.

MARTIN: But Mirakyan insists that YourMove.AI just helps people be the best version of themselves.

MIRAKYAN: It's hard to be the, like, charming and warm and witty version of yourself when you're on - taking the L train at 7 a.m. in the morning and you're running to work.

MARTIN: So far, more than 50,000 people have tried the app. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.