Bumble’s ‘Private Detector’ uses AI to detect dick pics

Dating apps are finally leveraging AI to clean up users’ chat messages. Badoo has introduced a new feature coming to its network of dating apps, including, most notably, Bumble.

The penile detecting “Private Detector” feature will leverage deep learning to identify dick pics and other inappropriate photos and label them as such in chat, giving users the option to view the photo or report the user.

It’s great that they’ve introduced this but this isn’t exactly a cutting-edge deep learning application here; this is something that realistically could have been introduced a while ago, but Badoo CEO Andrey Andreev opted to have his team build the tech in-house. The company claims 98 percent accuracy in detecting illicit pics.

The company already had a low-tech option in place here where any photo being sent in chat would be blurred and the receiving user had to manually open the picture. While the context of the conversation could be a guide to whether they wanted to open the photos, sometimes context isn’t very strong when it comes to unsolicited dick pics.

Bumble is banning guns from profile pictures

The new feature does very much fit into something Bumble CEO/founder Whitney Wolfe Herd has been promoting when it comes to making a dating app that’s safe for women and leads to less harassment. Wolfe Herd has started approaching the issue of unsolicited illicit photos from a legislative track as well. Wolfe Herd has been working with the Texas state legislature to pass a bill that makes it illegal to send clearly unsolicited lewd photos. Bumble is based in Austin, Texas.

The company says that because this is largely leaning on their tech stack, they don’t foresee any need to add more people to their content review team.

The “Private Detector” functionality goes live in June on Bumble, as well as on Badoo, Chappy and Lumen.