How AI offers dating based on a person's preferences: Igor Khalatyan talks about his project

iris Dating is a dating app created by Igor Khalatyan, the founder and CEO of IdealMatch. It differs from other dating apps in that it takes into account people's preferences when it comes to physical attractiveness.

After signing up for iris Dating, the app displays a series of photos and asks the user if they like them or not. The process takes about five to 10 minutes, during which time artificial intelligence learns the user's preferences.

"Everyone goes through this registration process, so we know everyone's preferences in terms of physical attractiveness. That way we can match people who are mutually attracted to each other," he says.

High likelihood of successful relationships

Although the first step begins with physical preferences, it does not yet guarantee a successful relationship. However, when people are physically mutually attracted to each other, it is a start and increases the likelihood of a successful relationship, says Igor Khalatyan.

"When people are mutually attracted to each other, they can start hanging out, reading each other's profiles, learning more about each other, and then seeing if it's a good match and can lead to more," he notes.

According to Igor Khalatyan, there is no such technology in dating apps. Other apps force people to constantly scroll through user profiles, which is actually a frustrating process, with 80 percent of users getting frustrated about it.

"Why? Because you can either scroll endlessly or search by distance, age group, gender, political views, religion, etc. But all those filters are blind when it comes to physical attractiveness," he says.

Igor Khalatyan explains that if, for example, in other dating apps a user applies a filter to search for people within a radius of, say, 20 km, then those who live 21 km or more away will not be included in this search, and among them there may be one that this user may like.

"So our technology is very different because it starts with a physical attraction and then you learn more about the person. The interesting thing is that when you find a person that you really like, you suddenly realize that all these other requirements that you had have become optional because you've already fallen in love," he notes.

Over 1 million users and a couple of matches every 15 seconds

The iris Dating service is used by more than 1 million people, most of whom are from the U.S. and Europe. The app is not yet advertised in Armenia, but there are users from Armenia as well.

"We have users who have created families, already live together, we have many clients who thank us for helping them find each other," he says, adding that every 15 seconds a match is registered on the app.

The company also uses technology to predict after which cosmetic intervention the user will look most attractive. They first take a photo of the person, and then Best Look reviews the photo and tells them what changes are needed.

The Potential of Armenian Startups

After moving to the United States, Igor Khalatyan first worked for eight years at Bell Laboratories, then at Oracle, after which he came up with the idea of iris Dating and started implementing it.

He says Armenia is a fantastic place for the IT sector because, he says, Armenians are endowed with special abilities, and the successes of Armenians in chess also testify to that.

"While working at Oracle, I had the opportunity to compare programmers from India, Armenia or the United States, and I can honestly say that the Armenians are at the highest level. So I think Armenia's IT sector has a bright future," says Igor Khalatyan, the first Armenian citizen to climb Everest.