Tinder Wants AI To Set You Up On a Date (bbc.com) 135
Dave Lee, writing for BBC: Tinder is growing up. It's now a serious technology company tackling one of life's most important matters, and is by far the most popular dating app worldwide. After a lot of boardroom musical chairs, Mr Rad is the chairman of both Tinder and Swipe Ventures, the arm of the company designed to buy other dating-related technologies. One of which is artificial intelligence. And its collision with dating might be the most intriguing application of AI yet. "I think this might sound crazy," Mr Rad said on Tuesday at tech conference Start-Up Grind. "In five years time, Tinder might be so good, you might be like "Hey [Apple voice assistant] Siri, what's happening tonight?' "And Tinder might pop up and say 'There's someone down the street you might be attracted to. She's also attracted to you. She's free tomorrow night. We know you both like the same band, and it's playing -- would you like us to buy you tickets?'... and you have a match. "It's a little scary."
this is great! (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
i must tell my wife! hooray!
Mine said fine as long as dhe has equal access.
Re: (Score:2)
i must tell my wife! hooray!
There you go, then, it's a problem easy to solve with AI. I'd give the right match first time nearly 50% of the time. Sounds impressive, no?
Re: (Score:3)
Don't bother...Siri/Alexa/Google already have let her know and put her in touch with a good lawyer.
Re: (Score:1)
Great, and you thought it was full of bots already (Score:1)
Now Tinder itself is a bot.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
For the millionth time, just because someone has a nice picture and you like the same band means jack shit to any sort of real life potential.
That's not how the AI determines the match, that's how the AI convinces you to go on the date.
Re: (Score:1)
This is absolutely and demonstrably untrue.
And the continued existence of Tinder proves it. People get laid every day because of Tinder.
Not everybody is looking for a long term relationship. Sometimes they just want to fuck.
Re:do you want to get mugged behind a bar? (Score:5, Insightful)
I beg to differ. That's where I met my wife, 20 years ago. I have a number of friends who met their spouse online. I even know a couple who met online BEFORE the Net, on CompuServe.
There are real women, and real men, on the net. But you generally need to be a decent person to connect with them . . . .
Re: (Score:2)
rule 16 - there are no girls on the internet.
While that cliche may once have been broadly- albeit never completely- true, it's a long time since that was the case.
Now that I think about it, it's no longer just a long time since that was the case... it's even been a long time since people felt it necessary to point out that the stereotype no longer applied. We've completely moved on now- when smartphones are more common than not among the female population, it's probably not something it would even occur to most people to think about nowadays.
Re: (Score:1)
This rule is about anonymity and equality. It has nothing to do with the actual sex of the person behind the keyboard.
In the physical world women have major advantages over men because men are hardwired to protect and provide for women and children.
On the internet you had no way to prove you were a woman, so you had to rely on what you say and do, just like all the men had to.
The declaration "there are no girls on the internet" did not mean that women d
Re: (Score:2)
Me and my ex were pretty much polar opposites. I'm not aware of many people who had as little in common with me as she did, except we both loved to fuck. 15 years well spent.
We met via IRC.
That's one of the least convincing anecdotes I've ever read on slashdot.
Read between the lines (Score:2)
Re:Read between the lines (Score:4, Insightful)
Until we develop an AI that can read between the lines honestly good luck with that
I don't think most people can even read between the lines, and especially men when it comes to women.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Until we develop an AI that can read between the lines honestly good luck with that
I don't think most people can even read between the lines, and especially men when it comes to women.
and this is how AI will overtake humanity effortlessly.
and i for one welcome our date-matching AI overlords. they could bring about the end of the world simply by matching the wrong people.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
"Until we develop an AI that can read between the lines honestly good luck with that"
Where's the money in that?
This AI can right now simulate millions of beautiful, horny women that _almost_ like you, but cannot meet you, because they wash their hair, but in the meantime, how about watching some sexy ads?
Re: (Score:2)
Bimmer. A beemer is a motorcycle. I can see why you'd need an app to find a mate.
I always thought it was when a woman gets cold, and her high beams turn on. What my better half calls them anyhow.
Re: (Score:1)
No, they're all beemers. Bimmer just makes you sound like an idiot.
And having one of their cars makes you an actual idiot.
Very nice bikes, though.
Grinder (Score:3)
Fun other uses for online dateing (Score:2)
Hi, my name is Werner Brandes. My voice is my passport. Verify Me
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Cooty's Rat Semen..... no thanks
No shit? (Score:4, Insightful)
Let me make sure I got this right....a dating app wants to set me up on a date?
Wow, talk about finding novel uses unrelated to the original functionality, what motherfucking super genius came up with this brain-busting idea of using a DATING APP to set people up with DATES?
What's next, using a washing machine to clean your clothes?
Re: (Score:2)
...using a washing machine to clean your clothes?
You've piqued my interest. Tell me more!
Re: (Score:2)
...using a washing machine to clean your clothes?
You've piqued my interest. Tell me more!
It's still in the developmental stages so I don't want to reveal too much at this point. But I can say it involves water and a secret ingredient called "soap".
Re: (Score:1)
I find your ideas intriguing and would like to subscribe to your newsletter
Re: (Score:2)
What's next, using a washing machine to clean your clothes?
You shouldn't post your ideas so lightly on public web boards. I just patented that idea. Sucks to be you
Re: (Score:2)
What's next, using a washing machine to clean your clothes?
You shouldn't post your ideas so lightly on public web boards. I just patented that idea. Sucks to be you
Damn, the it's a good idea I didn't post about my idea for a machine that uses hot air to dry freshly-washed clothes.
Re: (Score:2)
No, I rather die alone with meaningful or meaningless death than submit myself to the system.
Well, you're halfway there.
spam article - get this ad off slashdot (Score:4, Interesting)
could we please not have slashdot articles that are merely ads for crap products?
Dating culture needs to change first (Score:5, Insightful)
People are the problem, not the match-making system.
So long as people are willing to lie and manipulate to get laid or married, so long as they have unrealistic expectations and get vindictive when they're not met, there won't be an AI-managed dating app that will handle matchmaking well.
Anyway, the only matchmaking test you need is "do you find this person who is within a reasonable distance at least marginally attractive and have a shared activity you'd participate in together at least once?". The rest is bullshit.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
People are the problem, not the match-making system.
people are the problem with any computer system. most of them would run perfectly if it wasn't for the users.
Re: (Score:2)
I think the first solution to behavioural problems was probably a heavy stick. The flint knife was a major innovation, and 'flint lashed to the end of a stick' was probably as far as we needed to go.
Unless, of course, the person with the behavioural issue was the one (or also) in possession of such a technological solution.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
People are the problem, not the match-making system.
And people are having some issues with meeting other people. Long hours at work, limited opportunities in bars, which was never a good idea except for quickies anyhow, and the modern environment Where some women believe you talking to her is harassment if she isn't interested.
So a system where the first step - the expressed interest of the woman - is pretty handy for both sexes,
Re: (Score:3)
Where some women believe you talking to her is harassment if she isn't interested.
Maybe you should take the hint. I find it annoying when someone talks to me when I'm clearly not interested, but maybe I'm unusual.
Actually, my reference was to the act of talking to the woman ever, at all. I saw a Q and A session where a group of women were asked if talking to a woman was sexual harassment if she wasn't interested - Most said yes. Because the simple act of talking to a woman is not saying you want to screw her, and women have been taught that any male who isn't gay wants to screw her. Sad when they look at the world obsessed with the thought that everyone wants to screw them. And you needn't worry, unless I have been
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
I also find this .. sad. As a woman if someone is talking to me and I'm not interested it's not harassment. It may be annoying but it's not sexual unless the person escalates it beyond expressing interest and won't take no for an answer.
I talk to all kinds of men. I have no idea if any of them want to 'screw me' nor do I care. I've had men compliment me on my clothing, my hair, etc. and I've taken it as a simple compliment and nothing more.
And most women don't really care. Before around 2000, I would chat it up with anyone, male or female. And solely for the interaction. But for some reason, we have decided to listen to those who are trying to scrub normal male-female interactions off the face of the earth. There are some who think that this might have some relationship with the falling marriage rate. I don't know that there is only one causative factor, but many men have chosen to pursue other things like career and recreational activities
Re: (Score:2)
So long as people are willing to lie and manipulate to get laid...
So long as people are people, it wont work... Right.
So instead of adapting the technology to the people, people should be adapting to the system. I bet you're thinking that in a few iterations people will change to fit the system.
I take it you're a CS student. [xkcd.com]
Re: (Score:2)
It continually amazes that the supply of people determined to infer what was never implied in an effort to justify issuing insults simply never runs out.
Hopefully you're at least slightly more socialized in real life.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I would have thought it was all hookers and dudes pretending to be girls by now.
Besides, who needs Tinder now that Slashdot has banner ads for FilipinoCupid.com?
Re: (Score:3)
When I was using Tinder (up until a few months ago), I did notice a LOT of trans-girls (men dressing and acting like women). There used to be hookers, but those seem to have disappeared; perhaps Tinder got a lot better at dealing with that problem. But for the 25+ ages, and esp. the 30+ people, it's all real people AFAICT. But there are a lot of trannies, at least in my metro area, though they all seem to be between 25 and 30. The sad thing, however, is that the trannies are, on average, a lot prettier
Re: (Score:2)
Regarding TFA....I'm not sure I like this idea. Who is writing the algorithms or training the AI? Some beta coder who hasn't had a girl...ever? Just judging by the quote in TFS "you two like the same band, we can buy you tickets." GTFO. Why the FUCK would
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah, I think the "attractive cues" these days are completely warped to favor massive amounts of body sculpting and artificial products.
If you are making your judgment of beauty based on these factors, then I can completely see how men dressed in drag would be attractive to you since their make-up and body sculpting tends toward extreme.
Re: (Score:2)
No, you seem to not get it. The "real" women are American, and hence are overwhelmingly obese. The trannies aren't.
If you guys find obesity attractive, then more power to you, but obesity is extremely unhealthy so from an evolutionary biology viewpoint, it's perfectly normal for a man to not be attracted to obese women.
What would an AI actually do? (Score:5, Insightful)
Based on how I've seen most people use Tinder, a truly advanced artificial intelligence would simply connect them to a local escort service.
Re:What would an AI actually do? (Score:4, Interesting)
For those of you who have never used Internet dating sites (especially the free ones), they're full of prostitutes and fake accounts that exist just to lure men to pay porn sites. A large fraction of the women who are not prostitutes or fake accounts, don't seem particularly interested in getting involved with anyone, they're just there for the attention ("Look at me, look at me! I'm so awesome! YOU CAN'T HAVE ME, but LOOK AT ME!"). I'd estimate maybe 5% or so of the women you'd find on a dating site are legit -- and frankly, maybe 1 out of ten (or less) are anyone you'd want to have anything to do with anyway. Internet dating sites are more or less the last resort for the desperate, and as such not worth anyones' time.
Now, you're going to try to create a so-called 'AI' to set you up with a date? LOL, that's a train wreck even before it happens. Even human beings have problems weeding out the liars and you expect some half-assed machine intelligence to do a better job? Don't waste your time. Besides which, anyone using Tinder isn't looking for a 'relationship', they're looking for attention and for quick sex. Therefore this is the dumbest idea I've heard yet on the subject of so-called 'AI'. You'd do just as well closing your eyes and throwing a dart at a wall full of profile pics.
Re: (Score:1)
I guess I'm in that 5%. Maybe even the 1 out of ten you cite. Because I'm real, my profile is honest, my pictures are current, and I'm not trying to be anyone but who I am. My main picture is me in a Jayne hat FFS.
I als
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
I guess I'm in that 5%. Maybe even the 1 out of ten you cite. Because I'm real, my profile is honest, my pictures are current, and I'm not trying to be anyone but who I am. My main picture is me in a Jayne hat FFS.
I also guess that you're a neckbeard who will only look at the Google scraped model pictures and start your message with some offensive comment about their anatomy. Meant as a compliment of course.
When all you get is declined maybe the problem is closer to home.
My experience with the sites as a woman is the problem is probably the sites--I don't think most of the guys were fakes, but the matches I kept being offered were very WTF? It was like all my settings were negotiable, no matter how I had set their importance--and I still haven't a clue how the hell it managed to never once even try to give me somebody who was within the distance limit I set, I live in a big city near big cities.
I should note, they didn't once while I was still bothering checking manage to
Re: (Score:2)
Having skimmed enough local profiles, I'd be hard pressed to find any evidence that only 5% of ladies are real. Most of the profiles look pretty authentic to me (OKCupid) but I guess if you're using other places, they might not be.
My observation is that I just don't mesh with a lot of the folks on the site. Could be for a number of reasons: lots of vegans/vegetarians, folks that love to travel everywhere (crazy high cost of living here and I don't want a roommate), I'm far less established financially than
How is this news? (Score:2)
On every other halfway decent porn page you already get the info that there's someone near you who has exactly the same interests and wants to fuck even. Just click on the image of the hot chick...
Re:How is this news? (Score:5, Funny)
That doesn't turn out well [kinja-img.com]
Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
I would date Siri as shown in http://www.youtube.com/watch?v... [youtube.com] ...
Can't be that bad. (Score:3)
You can deduct a *lot* from tracking a user these days. Especially with all the data smartphone apps offer up to their suppliers. You basically have a more complete and trustworthy personal profile of a person than the person could probably even willingly give themselves. Sleeping habits, areas of interest, modes of transport, typing speed, wording/education, interests, income, temper, sexual preferences, political affiliation, religious beliefs ... the data hog megacorps of today know *everything* about you.
Having a large set of algorithms chose your partner for you based on such data is most likely to be a better choice than most humans could ever hope to make. The computer already knows much more about both mates than each could know about each other in years. And bring people together who would've never come together under regular circumstances.
Finding a fitting mate would actually be one of the better reasons for me to offer my data up to some app.
My 2 cents.
Re: (Score:3)
You can deduct a *lot* from tracking a user these days. Especially with all the data smartphone apps offer up to their suppliers. You basically have a more complete and trustworthy personal profile of a person than the person could probably even willingly give themselves.
But here's the rub. While these things go after compatibility and look for similarities, there is something to be said for differences as well. I'm coming up on my 40th anniversary, yet my wife and I are almost ridiculously different. We are roughly the same IQ, but she is very people oriented and sociable. Has a ton of friends. One of te most friendly people you'll meet, with a slightly dirty sense of humor.
Me, First of all, I'm kind of irritating, and hyper analytical. I have just a few close friend
Re: (Score:2)
She wants to try a dating service because she wants some strange.
She thinks I'm pretty strange.
Humanity: The Game v0.0.2a (Score:1)
How long until we stop being individuals and start following what our phones tell us to do such that AI is now playing a version of "The Sims?"
This is how AI is supposed to work! (Score:5, Funny)
We know all the scenarios where AI fucks us over, it's about time we heard about the scenarios where AI gets us fucked. ;)
Re: (Score:2)
We know all the scenarios where AI fucks us over, it's about time we heard about the scenarios where AI gets us fucked. ;)
How do we know it won't do both? It could control the gene pool.
Re: (Score:1)
Sounds like someone's result was "no matches, you're repulsive to everyone!" ;)
Screw that (Score:2)
Allowing a group of centralized elites to control mating opportunities. Gosh, no way that will be misused.
Existing approaches try to make matches between people who (ostensibly) share common interests, which definitely include meeting someone who they'll get along with, possibly for marriage, possibly for hookups. Some of these put an emphasis on raw sexuality, others claim to be about long term stuff, but ultimately each attracts a userbase suited to that behavior. The fact that you have to back up your
Re: (Score:2)
Allowing a group of centralized elites to control mating opportunities. Gosh, no way that will be misused.
Yeah, because I am sure that people will shrug and say "Gee, you are a horrible person and I wouldn't normally hang out with a person like you let alone date a person like you... but the computer said so.... will you marry me?"
Brave New World (Score:1)
Brave New World was supposed to be a warning, not a guidebook.
Re: (Score:2)
Truth is stranger than fiction.
Needs to be handled differently, IMO .... (Score:3)
I used the online dating sites pretty heavily when I was younger and still single. (I'm married to a woman who I met via OKCupid, as a matter of fact.)
I think like many things in life, you only get out of it what you put into it. If you approach the sites with the "kid in a candy store" mentality (which MANY men and women do), it turns into a way to flip through hundreds of photos to pick out only the people you find the most physically attractive, and to see how many of them you can get to go out with you. A whole lot of people who really tried to leverage the power of the dating site to find you better matches gets squandered or trampled on by all the people "clicking the pretty pictures". (After all, why waste hours taking numerous personality profile tests, writing a complete "bio", etc. -- if all of it was ignored by the majority of people anyway?)
Realistically? I know I'm not a bad looking guy, but I'm not a "head turner" either. I think I rank somewhere solidly in the "average" category on looks. So if we're only competing on a selection of photos alone, I'm going to be consistently left in the dust by guys 10 years younger than me, guys who go to the gym at least 3-4 times a week, etc. That's fine with me though, because I wasn't looking to date models who walked right off of photo shoots either.
So what happened for me is that I actually had some of my most enjoyable dates with women I met on Craigslist personals -- where half the time, they didn't even share a photo. I just went by what they wrote and how they wrote it, to determine if they seemed intelligent, relatively honest, and if we had some things in common. None of these dates led to anything serious, but they felt "genuine". Both of us were going into it pretty much blindly, with "blank slates" as expectations. And even when there was no chemistry, we were able to walk away as friends who just enjoyed a really good dinner or a few games of billiards or what-not.
When I put in the effort to really read through detailed profiles, compare "compatibility percentages" based on tests we both took, and contact people who shared mutual interests and beliefs over on sites like OKCupid? I generally got no response at all. I really think most women on there were just overwhelmed with a large number of initial contacts from all the guys who just said, "Ooh.... sexy photo. I'm gonna chat her up!", and/or got sucked into behaving the same way on the site.
When I finally met the woman I married, it was only because I'd already given up using the web site and left my profile sitting out there for months. I got an email notification that she had sent me a "Woo!", so I signed back in to see who did it and what their story was. That's when it turned out she lived in a different state, but had gotten so frustrated by the lack of communications with people taking the site seriously that she kept expanding her search outside her city and eventually to other states. She liked what I had to say in my profile, so sent me the "Woo" rather than wasting time writing a big letter for nothing (like had so often happened to her previously).
Tindr wasn't even a "thing" yet back then, but when I read about it as a new dating app, I realized it captured the essence of how most people were really using all of these other sites to begin with. Why bother taking quizzes or writing a lot of content? Just show the sexy photos and let people hit on each other....
Attaching THAT to a personal assistant is going to be relatively pointless, IMO. But a site that makes a serious effort to collect user info and preferences, that actually gets USED by serious individuals who want to fill all of that out? That could work.
Re: (Score:2)
King_TJ wrote :
I actually had some of my most enjoyable dates with women I met on Craigslist personals -- where half the time, they didn't even share a photo. I just went by what they wrote and how they wrote it, to determine if they seemed intelligent, relatively honest, and if we had some things in common.
I gave up looking for "ideal" profiles (same interests etc) because I found that the more "ideal" they sounded the less likely they were to respond. As you said :-
When I put in the effort to really read through detailed profiles, compare "compatibility percentages" based on tests we both took, and contact people who shared mutual interests and beliefs.... I generally got no response at all.
In the end I did not worry if "they seemed intelligent, relatively honest" etc and I just contacted those which were (1) shorter than me (I'm a guy); (2) 0-8 years younger then me; (3) reasonably near to me ( I was in a big city anyway); and (4) not ugly in their photo if there was one. That way I met some girls from utterly diffe
Re: (Score:2)
In the end I did not worry if "they seemed intelligent, relatively honest" etc and I just contacted those which were (1) shorter than me (I'm a guy); (2) 0-8 years younger then me; (3) reasonably near to me ( I was in a big city anyway); and (4) not ugly in their photo if there was one. That way I met some girls from utterly different backgrounds from mine (including, believe it or not, an ex- Playboy Club Bunny Girl, but she was not as hot as that might sound) and found that whether we clicked or not was orthogonal to commonalities on paper. I never expected nor wanted an intellectual sparring partner.
Executive summary: you just wanted to fuck anything female and not actually grotesque. Basically the same as picking someone up in a bar, but somehow that is uncool nowadays.
Re: (Score:1)
"Woo"
I can see how she got that.
+1 for you
Am I the only one (Score:2)
Am I the only one who thought of Quantum Leap while (mis)reading the headline?
Al: Sam, I want to set you up on a date
Sam: Oh boy!
Shakes 8 ball... (Score:2)
Facebook - AI - Tinder- ln -s Profile.dat /Faceboo (Score:1)
That's not AI (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
It's a combination of geo-targetting, data-mining, simply calendar comparison algorithms, trivial pattern matching and showing someone a picture alongside a binary choice.
To many people on slashdot, a thermostat counts as AI.
Ashley Madison has this beat. (Score:2)
Could be worse (Score:2)
This story makes me ponder the few times my "friends" tried to fix me up with someone without even considering my type. "She's single" is not a useful commonality. And in the 2010's, saying "She's into computers" doesn't mean the same thing it did during the 1980s. So, my "friends" clearly lacked intelligence in this matter so it remains to be seen if there is any "intelligence" in a piece of software.
The AI needs to be very specific... (Score:2)
Or "That girl is interested in you" might mean "that girl want to have her really bizarre fetish realized and it includes you and a thomas the tank engine costume".
Re: (Score:2)
Or "That girl is interested in you" might mean "that girl want to have her really bizarre fetish realized and it includes you and a thomas the tank engine costume".
Yeah, and depending on the time of evening it might be tricky rustling up the costume at short notice.
Tinder's forced FB auth makes this irrelevant (Score:1)