AI-Powered Dating App Ditto Gains Ground on California Campuses

A new dating platform developed by UC Berkeley dropouts is gaining traction across California campuses by promising to overhaul how young people find dates. Ditto AI, created by Allen Wang and Eric Liu, aims to eliminate the usual back-and-forth of dating apps by letting artificial intelligence handle everything – from finding a match to selecting a meeting spot and time.

Rather than asking users to swipe or send opening lines, Ditto asks students to create detailed profiles, including preferences, values, and personality traits. The app then simulates 1,000 potential date scenarios using its AI system to generate what it claims is the best match. Once selected, Ditto proposes a time and location and even supplies conversation starters tailored to the pairing.

The app has quickly caught on at UC Berkeley and UC San Diego, where thousands of students have signed up. Wang said roughly 20% of UCSD undergraduates are already using Ditto, and expansion to additional campuses is underway. The site plays on cultural references familiar to its Gen Z user base, branding itself as offering a “Black Mirror” dating experience – specifically invoking the episode “Hang the DJ,” which features AI-run simulations to determine romantic compatibility.

Despite interest, reactions are mixed. Some users have praised Ditto’s matches as “really fun,” while others are skeptical about the app’s heavily automated approach. Critics point out that relying too much on AI might skip the messy – but formative – parts of dating, such as learning from rejection and navigating conversation.

Still, the app is part of a growing trend among Gen Z to offload the burdens of digital courtship to tech. Whether Ditto becomes a lasting fixture or a short-lived experiment – and whether it will expand beyond its current target audience of mostly college students – remains to be seen.