Grindr chief says AI will write all code as app expands features

George Arison said Grindr is aiming for artificial intelligence to write all of its code eventually as the company expands safety tools, personalization and paid features across its app. The push would make the gay dating platform, in Arison’s words, “leaner” while moving it further beyond dating and toward what he called a global “gayborhood.”

Arison laid out the strategy in a June 6 Bloomberg interview, where he said Grindr had been growing by more than 25% a year for four years. Bloomberg also reported that revenue was up 38% from the prior year, even as the stock had fallen by about half from its peak, underscoring the tension between stronger operations and a weak share price. Grindr’s Q2 2025 shareholder materials also showed why investors are watching closely: the company posted $17 million in net income on $104 million in revenue, compared with a $22 million net loss a year earlier.

The code push is more than a product update. It shifts power inside the company toward executives who can mandate AI adoption from the top down, while narrowing the space for engineers to decide how software gets built, reviewed and maintained. Grindr has already moved aggressively in that direction. Sherwood News reported in August 2025 that about 20% of its code was automated, and later reporting put the AI-generated share at roughly 70% to 80%. The company’s own Q2 2025 materials defined “AI-native” as rebuilding product, architecture and operations with intelligence embedded at every layer rather than bolted on afterward.

That restructuring is taking place inside a service with about 14.5 million monthly users, where privacy concerns carry more weight than in a typical consumer app. Arison has said the company’s AI features are opt-in, a notable safeguard for users who may not want intimate messages, match behavior or profile data routed through automated systems. Grindr has said its AI tools include Wingman, AI-curated shortlists of best matches and chat-history summaries, and Cybernews reported the features were powered by Anthropic’s Claude and Amazon Bedrock.

Monetization is part of the same bet. Bloomberg reported that Grindr was exploring a higher-priced premium tier above its current priciest plan, which costs about $40 a month, tying deeper personalization and AI features to a more expensive subscription. Sherwood also reported that Arison was building a telehealth platform called Woodwork around the app, another sign that Grindr’s AI push is aimed not just at engineering efficiency but at a broader expansion of revenue and control.