Is dating headed for the metaverse?
Jennifer Glista, VP of strategic partnerships and platform sales at Receptiviti, won’t say specifically where the technology is being deployed today – though it was used in the now-defunct LoveFlutter dating site – but agrees theoretically it could be applied on a dating platform to analyse conversations between two people to give advice on whether or not they are a good match.
“It can provide objective analysis by measuring their interpersonal relationship; it’s not meant to be a decision maker, but can say, in that moment, the two people appeared to have a really great rapport, maybe more 
so than with another individual,” Glista explains. Babita Spinelli, a licensed psychotherapist and certified coach specialising in relationships, says AI can be really useful for dating, especially when it “really gets to know” an individual user to help them find better matches, but warns that people should use it with caution and not let it hinder their ability to apply critical thinking to relationships.
“People need to consider whether AI really lets them think outside of the box, the way they normally would; is it allowing them to experience the kind of emotion that one would normally do in the dating world?” she asks.
Indeed, Blaine Anderson, a professional dating coach who works only with men, says many of her clients fixate on the algorithms, not wanting to blame themselves for getting poor matches. “They look for something else to attribute that to instead, and the app algorithms are an easy target, particularly because they’re opaque,” she says, adding that there is an “entire bogus industry” based around hacking dating app algorithms to match with supermodels.
The propensity for bias in algorithms is well known. There is the risk that, if not programmed conscientiously or with bias in mind, they could predominantly match people from the same race or by other specific traits. Continue reading “Maybe these people are not entirely paranoid”