AI-driven apps are moving beyond endless swipes, bringing strangers together in real life — from dinner tables to yoga classes — in a bid to fight loneliness and foster genuine human connections.
L’Observateur
One summer evening in San Francisco, JT Mason went to a dinner with five strangers who shared many things in common with him, thanks to a selection made by the artificial intelligence (AI) of 222, a new kind of dating app.
“What I like about 222 is that I get to meet real human beings, not the image of themselves that people try to project online,” says the 25-year-old paramedic.
Before the evening, on the sleek-looking app, he filled out a long personality questionnaire covering his values, interests, tolerance for drugs, personality traits, and many other criteria.
After dinner, he went to a private art deco bar where other groups of strangers, also matched by 222, were gathering, eager to meet potential new friends—or more, if there was chemistry.
Everyone then had the opportunity to tell the app which people they’d like to see again at future events—or not—and why.
According to 222, the app’s AI becomes particularly skilled at matching users with each other after they’ve taken part in several events, from restaurant dinners to yoga sessions and improv classes.
“I don’t know if AI can understand human chemistry—we’re still a long way from that,” says JT Mason. “But I think it helps us take the first step, putting us face to face and letting us try to build a connection.”
“15 Cigarettes a Day”
Predicting compatibility between strangers using AI is the obsession of Keyan Kazemian and the other co-founders of the app, which is available in major cities from London to Los Angeles.
The 26-year-old entrepreneur hopes to “help people not only meet and see each other again, but also form long, lasting relationships.”
After a stint at the Match Group (Tinder, Hinge, etc.), he concluded that traditional dating apps “only want one thing: to keep you swiping.”
“Most new technologies connect people with virtual entities, not with humans,” he adds, referring to social media and AI assistants like ChatGPT.
The growing difficulties people face in forming bonds worry health professionals so much that in 2017, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy spoke of a “loneliness epidemic.”
“The impact of social disconnection on mortality is comparable to smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day, and even greater than that associated with obesity or physical inactivity,” he said in another report in 2023, citing increased risks of cardiovascular disease, dementia, and depression.
According to various studies, the culprits include the gradual disappearance of traditional social institutions, addictive digital platforms, and, more recently, the pandemic and remote work.
Strangers in the Street
When she moved to New York in 2021 to work at an investment bank, Isabella Epstein “tried everything.”
Freshly graduated from a small university, used to thriving in “tight-knit communities,” she turned to apps and joined clubs, but to no avail.
“I didn’t have the courage to admit it, but I felt very lonely,” she recalls.
“I even started approaching strangers on the street, at cafés. I’d compliment someone on their outfit, ask someone else about their book. And people were delighted to have conversations.”
Over time, the young woman gathered hundreds of contacts. She began organizing impromptu events, inviting some people to bars and others to pickleball games, finally building herself a circle of friends.
Passionate about the subject, she quit her job and launched “Kndrd,” an app for New York women under 40 that allows its roughly 10,000 users to suggest activities and find partners.
Other services similar to 222 and Kndrd have also emerged in recent years, such as Timeleft, Plots, or Realroots.
“The positive side of these apps is that their business model doesn’t depend on time spent online,” emphasizes Félix-Olivier Ngangue, investor at Convivialité Ventures. “It’s in their best interest for people to actually meet in real life.”
