Axios' Avery Lotz digs into the rise of startups using artificial intelligence to help humans find love:

AI already wants to be your hype man, therapist and companion. Now it also wants to find you a date.

The big picture: Established dating apps and new startups are using AI to overcome the swipe fatigue that's forced the online dating industry to innovate. Through AI-assisted conversation starters, in-app assistants and AI-powered chemistry testing, the tech has many uses in the business of love.

• Bumble CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd teased the app's AI assistant "Bee" coming later this year in an interview with Axios.

🍎 Zoom in: New York-based Amata coordinates some 2,000 first dates a month. Users who agree to the AI matchmaker's pairing purchase a $20 "date token," and the app plans the details.

• ❌ To discourage ghosting, the app builds in consequences: If you cancel two dates in a row, you're temporarily blocked from matching.
• "It's really focused on intentional dating," Amata spokeswoman Mandy Menaker says.

❤️ Another approach: Carly Malatskey founded SoCal-based AI matchmaker Joey AI after noticing the dating startups she encountered through her venture capital work lacked nuance. "People are choosing a life partner ... as mindlessly as scrolling on TikTok," she says.

• With Joey, there's no swiping. There's not even an app. It starts with a phone call between an interested single and their AI matchmaker.

📞 I gave Joey a ring. In a mellow Australian accent, the AI asked me my name, job and basic dating preferences, then went deeper: How important is politics in my relationships? What time did I wake up today? How often have I talked with my family this week?

• After that initial call, users are verified and photos are shared, with Joey connecting new hopeful romantics via text. (I opted out of getting matched — a journalist engaged to her high school sweetheart likely isn't the target audience.)
• "Joey starts as a matchmaker and then can grow into this wingman," Malatskey says, with users reaching out to Joey for advice — and pep talks — as dates proceed.

For San Francisco-based Known, there's no in-app chatting between users, no profiles and no swiping.

• 💰 Users talk to an AI matchmaker and pay $15 to secure their real-life hang, which also helps prevent no-shows.
• 👭 The goal, co-founder and CEO Celeste Amadon says, is to feel like you're being introduced by a friend who "understands you really, really well, but knows everybody in your city instead of a couple hundred people."

Case in point: Marie Lansley, a 36-year-old San Franciscan, tried out Known to find her Prince Charming. She was struck by the matchmaker's emotional intelligence, and appreciated not having to build a profile.

• Her first match wasn't love at first bot, but she's not ruling out letting AI find her true love. "I'm not 100% sure it can right now, but maybe it can help me sift through the volume so that I can then go out and meet that person," she said.

🧪 The bottom line: "Chemistry will always be analog," Lansley says.

• AI can help arrange a date, but the rest is up to humans.

Share this story. ... Check out "The Axios Show" interview with Bumble CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd.

Couldn't we all use a little more kindness in our lives these days?

• Axios Boston reporter Steph Solis stopped by a Harvard Square greeting card store that's building a temporary "kindness wall."

✏️ Use this inspiration to leave a note somewhere.

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