Grindr Goes'AI-First' as It Strives to Be an'Everything App for the Gay Guy' After controlling shareholders failed to take Grindr private and controversies over data and the banning of the phrase "No Zionists," Grindr's CEO opens up about AI, privacy, and big expansion plans. Every Grindr user is unique. South Koreans prefer open relationships. The highest percentage of self-proclaimed "daddies" call the US home, and Switzerland is overrun with twinks. Delivered by annual trend report Grindr Unwrapped, those critical insights offer the type of information that will help usher the company into its "AI-first" era where it's "the everything app for the gay guy," CEO George Arison tells WIRED. Grindr was the first to leverage geo-location tech when it burst onto the scene in 2009. Arison arrived at the company in 2022 from the world of automotive ecommerce.

WIRED Roundup: DOGE Isn't Dead, Facebook Dating Is Real, and Amazon's AI Ambitions In this episode of, we bring you the news of the week, then dive into how some DOGE operatives are still at work in the federal government--despite reports claiming otherwise. Uncanny Valley host Zoë Schiffer is joined by senior editor Leah Feiger to discuss five stories you need to know about this week, from how Amazon is trying to catch up in the AI race to why Facebook Dating is more popular than ever. Then, they dive into how--despite recent reports claiming that it's over--DOGE operatives are still very much working across federal agencies. Who the Hell Is Actually Using Facebook Dating? Sex Workers Built an'Anti-OnlyFans' to Take Control of Their Profits Here's What Its Operatives Are Doing Now Write to us at uncannyvalley@wired.com . You can always listen to this week's podcast through the audio player on this page, but if you want to subscribe for free to get every episode, here's how: If you're on an iPhone or iPad, open the app called Podcasts, or just tap this link . Today on the show, we're bringing you five stories that you need to know about this week, including how despite some reports claiming that the so-called Department of Government Efficiency is pretty much over, DOGE people are actually still at work across federal agencies. I'm joined today by our senior politics editor, Leah Feiger. How are you doing today? I am great because I've spent the day with you, but our gentle listeners don't know that. So the first story this week is one that I saw and I thought, you know what? Leah's going to want to talk about Amazon's artificial intelligence prowess.

Twitter users are calling on Elon Musk to develop an AI-powered dating app called'Twinder,' touting it as the way'to save humanity from extinction.' The idea came after Musk replied'population collapse' to a tweet showing how fertility rates keep dropping in the Nordic countries. The potential dating app, which the Twitter CEO deemed an'interesting idea,' would use artificial intelligence to make matches instead of random swiping. The suggested service would feed AI Twitter accounts, including posts, comments and likes, and the technology would look for another user with similar behaviors and interests. The Twitter thread, viewed over two million times, has hundreds of comments, with some sharing how they met their partner on the social network.

SAN FRANCISCO: Facebook's artificial intelligence (AI) research team has developed a tool that tricks the facial recognition system to wrongly identify a person in a video, the media reported. The "de-identification" system, which also works in live videos, uses machine learning to change key facial features of a subject in a video, according to a report in VentureBeat on Friday. "Face recognition can lead to loss of privacy and face replacement technology may be misused to create misleading videos," reads a paper explaining the company's approach, as cited by VentureBeat. This de-identification technology earlier worked mostly for still images, The Verge reported. "Recent world events concerning advances in, and abuse of face recognition technology invoke the need to understand methods that deals with de-identification. Our contribution is the only one suitable for video, including live video, and presents quality that far surpasses the literature methods," said the paper.

Facebook Dating will let you add Stories from your Facebook and Instagram accounts. Facebook's online dating service will let you add ephemeral photos and videos from the social network and Instagram, a feature that could help set the company's service apart from Tinder, Hinge and other competitors. The introduction of short-lived content into its dating service illustrates how Facebook continues to bet on online dating, an already crowded market, even as it faces privacy concerns. Facebook Dating, a feature in the main social network, is currently available in 20 countries including the US, Mexico, Thailand, Vietnam and Canada. When Facebook introduced its dating service, some users told CNET they thought the feature was too similar to other dating apps.

Facebook Dating launched in the US last week, giving users ages 18 and older access to typical dating app features like specialized profiles and matchmaking algorithms. Though the dating app space is crowded, Facebook has an opportunity to set itself apart by simplifying what's arguably the most vexing aspect of online dating: setting up a profile. Jonathan Kay, founder of app analytics platform Apptopia, explains that aside from offering users a new, more curated experience, Facebook could potentially ease the tedious process of putting together a profile--users' top dating app pain point. "The real problem with dating sites is that the barrier to entry is extremely high," Kay said. "Not only do you need to invest time in actually setting up a profile, you also have to create this profile from scratch--finding pictures, crafting an'About Me'--those things can be awkward and difficult to do."

Facebook announced on Thursday it is rolling out its newest service across the US, a platform for dating. A lot, it turns out. The new service, Facebook Dating, can be accessed in the Facebook app but requires users to create a separate dating-specific profile. It then links users with potential matches based on location, indicated preferences, events attended, groups, and other factors. Facebook Dating will integrate with Instagram and offer a feature called Secret Crush, which allows users to compile a list of friends they have an interest in, to be matched with if the crush lists them as well.

Facebook is taking a swipe at Tinder with a new dating service that is being rolled out today. The newly released service, called Facebook Dating, will harness the power of the platform's user data, including what you like, what events you go to, and what groups you're a part of, to connect you to both Facebook and Instagram users who have opted in. Unlike other major dating apps like Tinder, however, Facebook won't require users to mutually'match' before being able to connect, and instead will let participants browse profiles via a familiar card-style cue and interact with the ones that interest them. Facebook says users can interact with profiles in two ways: by liking a profile to let someone know that they're interested or by commentating directly on a picture. Facebook is jumping into the dating game with its new Facebook Dating service that will allow users to connect with people in and outside of their friend network.

Mark Zuckerberg seems to have landed on a solution to turn around his untrustworthy and "not quite human" public image: playing Cupid. Harking back to its humble beginnings as a tool for ranking strangers' attractiveness, Facebook has announced a new feature called Secret Crush, wherein users select the friends for whom they carry a torch. If your crush adds you to their list – and with up to nine picks allowed, your odds aren't bad – Facebook will reveal you to each other and love will assuredly bloom. But if the feeling is not reciprocated, they need never know your identity – just that one of their friends has added them as "a secret crush". It is, for sure, a more welcome notification than "It is [former colleague]'s birthday today.

Facebook begins publicly testing its online-dating product, called Dating, in Colombia today. The service was first announced at the annual F8 conference in May this year, and will likely be available in other locations in the future. For now, users aged 18 and older in Colombia will be able to create dating profiles and, once those reach a critical mass, find some matches. WIRED got to preview an early version of the service, and it looks promising--especially for users looking for meaningful long-term relationships rather than hookups. In other words, you can expect to find exactly zero swiping.