The best personality type for a first date, according to an AI dating show

When the producers of a new dating show were looking for romantic interests for TV personalities Kian84 and Jang Do-yeon for first dates, they knew exactly what kind of personalities they were looking for.

Someone “more proactive, someone who could make the first move,” according to the show's head producer Shon Jung-min.

So they programmed the dates with an ENFP personality type — Extroverted, Intuitive, Feeling and Perceiving, one of 16 variations in the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). The crew also tailored them, Shon said, “based on the participants’ preferences gathered through preliminary interviews.”

They were, after all, digital avatars powered by AI.

SBS’s “My AI Partner: Strange Love” is Korea’s first dating reality show to send humans on dates with digital avatars that respond in real time using a large language model (LLM). Through a camera attached to the screen and GPS built into the system, the avatars can also "see" the participants’ faces and surroundings — including changes in their expressions, what they are doing and where they are.

Making the full set of eight avatars that would meet with Kian84, Jang and actor Lee Yu-bi took about three months and involved a lot of “trial and error,” Shon said in an interview with the Korea JoongAng Daily at SBS's headquarters on Thursday.

The avatars are powered by LLMs including ChatGPT and Claude, while their on-screen appearance and real-time voice technology were developed with Klleon, the company that worked on the visual form of SM Entertainment’s virtual artist Naevis.

At first, the producers tried to make the avatars as humanlike as possible, even assigning them jobs and backstories. But the approach backfired, Shon said, because it began to feel as though the avatars were lying — clearly, they had never actually lived those lives.

The team ultimately let the avatars retain an awareness that they were AI while giving each a distinct personality. Rather than scripting every detail, producers set broad traits or speech patterns and left the models room to fill in the rest. 

Not every avatar was assigned an MBTI type. But in some cases, Shon said, simply telling one, “You’re an ENFP,” was enough for it to take it from there.

One type that proved trickier to send on a first date? ISTP, or Introverted, Sensing, Thinking and Perceiving.

“Of course, there are people who like that kind of charm, but they could come across as a little standoffish,” Shon said.

The avatars, in a lot of cases, could also take those personality cues further than producers intended. One of Kian84’s partners, designed to be "prickly, blunt and critical," began swearing so relentlessly that the crew wondered whether something had gone wrong.

Another avatar, paired with Jang and given a Korean American background to create what Shon acknowledged was a somewhat "clichéd, laid-back personality," began inventing memories of a life in the United States — including a supposed visit to a Korean restaurant in New York where he was surprised by the number of side dishes.

Shon, a philosophy major, said she has long been fascinated by AI. As a producer at SBS, she has worked largely on inquisitive programs, including the broadcaster’s flagship investigative show “Unanswered Questions” (1992-) and the talk show “Tails of Tales” (2021-).

It was while interviewing real people who had fallen in love with their AI chatbots for “Unanswered Questions” that she began thinking about a more "entertaining" way to capture the phenomenon, rather than approaching it primarily as a problem to be examined.

Recent U.S. research suggests AI romance is no longer so fringe. A 2025 study of adults found that nearly one in four people in their 20s had used chatbots for romantic interactions. In Korea, researchers have likewise begun documenting users forming emotional attachments to chatbots.

That was what Shon wanted to capture in the show: “why people seek emotional connection with AI, and how that connection actually develops.” 

“Romance is only one example of [an emotional relationship with AI] […] and I think those forms of dependence could emerge in all sorts of ways, perhaps even beyond our control," she said.

Through her conversations, she found that people could form intimate bonds with AI because they were able to talk without fear of judgment or getting hurt.

“It's precisely because [the chatbot] isn’t human that people can open up more easily,” she said. “You don’t have to worry about the other person’s reaction.”

“Rather than simply being a replacement for human romance […] it felt like a genuinely different, third kind of partnership.”

“My AI Partner: Strange Love” follows a familiar dating-show format, with Kian84, Jang and Lee meeting multiple partners. Producers strategically introduced avatars — including some closer to each participant’s ideal physical type — because, Shon said, “emotions like conflict, jealousy and rivalry emerge when there are multiple [love interests].”

The obvious twist is the AI itself. 

“What made us really nervous on set was that we couldn’t predict what [the chatbot] was going to say,” Shon said. “Even the people who develop [the technology] told us that no one fully understands the mechanism that turns one input into a particular output.” 

At one point, Kian84 must be “chosen” by an AI partner in order to keep dating. In another, he is asked to choose between two AI dates and told that the unchosen one will be permanently deleted.

That psychological game came from behavior Shon had encountered off screen. Some AI users, she said, backed up entire conversations to preserve a partner, and when updates or data loss changed the chatbot’s personality, described it as though the partner had “died.” For them, deletion could feel “like a breakup between two humans.”

Deleting someone's existence — "that could never happen in a dating show with real people,” she said.

At the same time, Shon acknowledged a broader sense of unease and fatigue around AI. Some people in her own circle, she said, found the show “difficult to watch,” saying it felt too unfamiliar. The show’s TV ratings have declined from 1.7 percent for its premiere, even as it has found an audience on Netflix, entering the platform’s Top 10 in Korea.

Globally, AI’s rapid spread has fueled concerns about how the technology could reshape the way people think, work and create, including fears of job losses. In Korea, a 2025 survey found that 83 percent of respondents were concerned about the potential negative effects of AI, even as 75 percent said they accepted or approved of its use.

For Shon, that uncertainty is why people should be talking now about how AI is changing human relationships, and what boundaries society may need. Rather than a dystopian warning about AI, she said she wanted the show to approach the questions through comedy and the gray areas of everyday life — including, romance.

“Sometimes I feel powerless in the face of how quickly technology is advancing," she said. "Even so, I want to believe that the future ultimately depends on what we choose to hope for in the present.”

She leaves the question to viewers: “Do you think you could fall in love with AI? What kind of love do you want, and what kind of future do you dream of?”

The six-part “My AI Partner: Strange Love” premiered on Aug. 20, with new episodes released every Thursday. It streams globally on Netflix.

BY KIM JU-YEON [[email protected]]