Why has Tinder paused the app's AI Photo Enhance tool?

Tinder has paused its AI-powered photo enhancement tool in the US following complaints from users.

According to the dating app the tool is used to help "improve the technical quality of your photos," and is "designed to enhance overall photo quality — for example, making your profile photo clearer and better lit — not to make you look different."

The feature was first introduced back in March alongside other AI features such as Photo Insights - where an AI tool takes a look at your camera roll to assess your interests and personality and in 2024 introduced AI tool Photo Selector, to assist with picking the best photos for a user's profile.

On their website, it describes how the AI Photo Enhance Tool can "sharpen blurry images, adjust brightness and exposure, and improve clarity. It’s not designed to add or remove people, objects, or backgrounds, apply cosmetic effects, or change facial features or skin tone appearance," while users can also can tap it to reject the enhanced version and revert to the original if preferred.

But multiple outlets have reported that the tool has over enhanced their photos, with one alleging it lightened his skin as reported by NewsNation.

"It was extremely violating," said former Tinder user Jenny Rubin, who told the outlet that she deleted the app after her experience with the AI-enhancing tool.

"It felt pretty uncanny, to be honest. Those are not my teeth. That’s not what my mouth looks like," alleging that her toothless smile was edited for her to have a smith with teeth.

Rubin also took to TikTok to highlight the difference between the photo before and after the photo was edited by Tinder's AI tool.

She wasn't the only user to complain as NBC News reported how other users told them that the app altered their facial features, and even skin tone as well as adding features that previously weren't on the images.

A Tinder spokesperson told Indy100 via email, “Photo Enhance is designed to improve the technical quality of photos, like lighting, clarity and overall image quality, not to change someone's appearance. We know that profiles with clear, well-lit first photos have a much better experience, so our goal was to help make that easier for people on Tinder. The feature is in a test phase in limited markets and is available to a subset of profiles that had a detectable technical issue on the first photo, and more than 90% of people who receive an enhanced photo keep it.

"Even after extensive pre-launch testing, our team recently discovered that in a small percentage of cases, the underlying model can make unintended changes to a person's appearance. Feedback data shows less than 0.5% of enhanced photos were flagged as not looking like the user, though not all of that feedback reflects a change as visible as what's been reported. We've paused the test in the US and are investigating the cause while we improve and expand additional safeguards."

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