💬 Quoted: “It’s that friend in the bar who’s helping you to ask someone out – but in the virtual context.”

Online dating giants are racing to build the digital Goose to your IRL Maverick. Tinder, Hinge, Bumble, and Grindr (whose Chief Product Officer is quoted above) are all in the process of building or testing AI tools and chatbots that do things like generate icebreakers, build profiles, or provide feedback on user flirting.

• Like that one ex who always reaches out after their latest breakup, dating apps are hoping these AI tools can entice users back to their platforms. A joint survey by Forbes Health/OnePoll in March found 78% of dating app users had experienced burnout, with 40% of them blaming their exhaustion on repeated failures to find a good match.
• This fatigue has translated into poor user growth for dating apps. Bumble shares fell ~28% last month after the company slashed its revenue outlook and acknowledged that a recent brand overhaul had not yet reignited user growth. Meanwhile, the $9.6 billion Match Group is under pressure from activist investors to deliver a turnaround at its largest product, Tinder, which reported a seventh consecutive quarter of declines in paying subscriber numbers in the three months to June, the Financial Times reports.

🥃 Stat of the Day: Macallan unveiled a new collectible whisky series this week containing its oldest and rarest bottle of scotch – and it could be yours for the low, low price of a starter home in Middle America. The new two-bottle “Time:Space Collection” – which includes an 84-year-old single malt and a smaller flask containing a historic five-year-old whisky – is priced at $190,000, with just 200 packages up for grabs. They’re expected to sell fast, as Macallan has a history of fetching the highest-ever prices at auction for wines or spirits.

🤔 Did You Know? In the US, an estimated 5% to 6% of all plastics are recycled each year.

📰 Worth a Read: Can You Outsmart a Raccoon? → (Atlas Obscura)