SAN FRANCISCO: New artificial intelligence-powered meet-up applications are emerging as innovative solutions to combat modern loneliness by facilitating genuine human connections through carefully curated real-world events.
Platforms like 222 use extensive user questionnaires covering values, interests, and personal criteria to match compatible strangers for dinners, yoga sessions, and improv classes.
Twenty-five-year-old paramedic JT Mason experienced this firsthand when he attended a dinner with five complete strangers selected by the 222 app, followed by an evening at a private art deco bar with other users seeking friendships or potential relationships.
“ I’m not getting the image that they want people to see. I’m getting the actual human being,“ Mason said about the platform’s approach to connection building.
After events, participants indicate which people they would like to see again and explain why, allowing the app’s artificial intelligence to improve its matching capabilities over multiple gatherings.
Mason observed that while AI remains far from truly understanding human chemistry, it serves effectively as “ the first step in getting us to the table to try to create that connection.”
Twenty-six-year-old entrepreneur Keyan Kazemian co-founded 222 after working at Match Group, parent company of Tinder and Hinge, where he concluded traditional dating apps “ only seek one thing: are you going to swipe right on the next person?”
Kazemian aims to help people “ not only form initial connections and get to the next interaction, but help people who already know each other form long, lasting relationships.”
Health professionals have grown increasingly concerned about connection difficulties, with former US surgeon general Vivek Murthy describing a “ loneliness epidemic” in 2017.
Murthy’s 2023 report warned that “ the mortality impact of being socially disconnected is similar to that caused by smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day, and even greater than that associated with obesity and physical inactivity.”
Studies attribute this social disconnection to disappearing traditional social institutions, addictive digital platforms, pandemic effects, and remote work trends.
Isabella Epstein experienced this isolation firsthand when she moved to New York in 2021 for an investment banking job and found building connections incredibly difficult despite trying apps and joining clubs.
“ It was an emotionally challenging period for me,“ Epstein recalled of her transition from a small Vermont university to the large city.
She eventually began approaching strangers in coffee shops and on streets, complimenting outfits or asking about reading materials, finding people generally receptive to her overtures.
Epstein gradually accumulated hundreds of contacts and began organizing impromptu events including happy hours and pickleball games, eventually creating her own circle of friends.
Her experience inspired her to quit her banking job and launch “ Kndrd,“ an app targeting New York women under 40 that allows its approximately 10,000 users to suggest activities and find partners.
Other similar services have emerged recently including Timeleft, Plots, and Realroots, all focusing on real-world connections rather than online engagement.
Felix-Olivier Ngangue, an investor at Convivialite Ventures, noted that “ the positive side of these apps is that their business model doesn’t rely on time spent online,“ adding that “ it’s in their interest for people to meet in real life.” – AFP
