In case you were wondering where the limits of blockchain and AI lie, let me tell you that your love life is not one of them.
While the dating platform Tinder makes use of pictures and short descriptions, an app called Viola.AI takes the game to a whole new level. First off, what has blockchain got to do with it?
Viola.AI makes use of blockchain technology in order to verify its users by visual recognition. This is a prevention measure to avoid (identity) frauds and ensure safety. This makes sense in a world where catfishing or dubious messages are as common as getting your bike stolen on your average day trip to Amsterdam.
What’s far more interesting however, is how the app makes use of artificial intelligence. With the help of deep learning, the app takes a bunch of variables of your behaviour into account and creates a database of it. Viola.AI then analyzes your conversation history, your preferences as well as your user behaviour. All of this is being done in order to find your perfect match.
Furthermore, the app integrates a holistic approach not only for finding compatible partners, but also for giving personalized relationship advice as well as suggestions on where to have your next date. Therefore, it acts as a middleman between you and your love interests.
Lastly, in order to ensure the best possible online dating experience, Viola.AI uses customer feedback for improving its machine learning algorithms.
Until now, the app is mainly being used in Asian cities, such as Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta and Bangkok. However, if you ask me, it’s only a matter of time until AI and online dating will join forces in Western countries.
What are your thoughts on this topic? Do you think you’d be happier if an algorithm took over your attempts in finding a suitable match online? What about data concerns?
Sources:
https://medium.com/trusteddapps/is-viola-ai-the-future-of-dating-1d9c35a7feb2
https://medium.com/viola-ai/online-dating-bots-how-reliable-are-they-c38dd54e8524
Thank you for sharing this interesting article Katharina!
What I find particularly interesting about this topic is the concern in regard to the AI’s morality. The CDO of Happn, a dating app also embraced in the Netherlands that is already using AI, has expressed his concerns about keeping it morally correct. For example, it has been proved that their is an increased chance that such a machine will be biased in a sense that provokes discrimination. It could be that the AI tool matches you with persons most similar to yourself, causing discrimination to show in terms of for instance skin color and backgrounds. As a result, it might be that AI’s attempt to find the “best” matches is not the way to go. On the contrary, it would be specifically interesting to let the machine find you rather unexplored matches, ones that we humans cannot think of. Maybe, that is what digital disruption is really about…
References
Heyer, J. (2018) For Dating Sites, Artificial Intelligence v. The Human Heart. Worldcrunch. Retrieved from https://www.worldcrunch.com/tech-science/for-dating-sites-artificial-intelligence-v-the-human-heart
Hi Sophie, thank you for sharing your thoughts on my blog post! I also really enjoyed the read of the article that you linked! I agree with you that the biases of the algorithm might interfere with the ethics of such a dating app. Discrimination based on characteristics that you can’t influence is unfortunately, despite all the efforts that have been made by interest groups and governments, still an issue in our society. And for sure, it doesn’t stop when it comes to dating apps. However, I think that this is something that needs to be actively addressed to developer teams so that they can intervene and take out specific attributes, such as income level or ethnicity.
If you ask me, a dating app that makes use of A.I. should mainly focus on a person’s interests and behavioral patterns. For example, if a person enjoys the music of specific bands, has preferences in terms of nutrition or reads certain books, I don’t see an issue with the suggestion of people with similar interests. I do believe that we could create interesting connections with people that we would otherwise never meet in real life. And therefore, wouldn’t it be worth a shot?
Hello Katharina, very interesting article. The ideas just remind me of 2 stories: from Netflix and the movie which teaches you how to fall in love with a smart system- , if you haven’t watched them, strongly recommended.
As for you questions, firstly, i think the dating recommendations or talking/dating techniques are generated from user cases, for example the system will review the keys words from several key milestones that happens to a successful match, which shall be indicated by user status. For instance, only by gathering enough failed cases, the system can confidentially tell you that : don’t take her to that restaurant, 83% of our users went breakup after going there. Here, I think activity data must be open for suggestion function, but… do you think this make sense?
If people consider being in a relationship a solution, well, for those goal-oriented people,this is a way out. I can image some use cases: elder unmarried and burned people. If one day I got tired in real life, I probably will try this kind of service, but just for “knowing people ” as the first step instead of “using the whole package”, and here we have the problems:
1. I meet a nice one and I am not using any aid from the app, information asymmetry appears : Am I talking to a real human being or a system which teaches the typist how to date?
2. we are using the service, information asymmetry disappears: because basically there are 2 systems talking to each other, falling in love.
3. Are you still yourself? Does finding love equals a journey of compromising?
It is so complicated.
“Hang the DJ” and “Her”
Hi Katharina!
Interesting post! I have some doubts regarding the success of the platform. Specifically, I would like to address data privacy concern. You mentioned in the post that Viola.AI analyzes a user’s conversation history in order to understand the user better. Because we are talking about the dating industry, the conversation history includes intimate text messages but also photos, which can get very personal. It made me wonder, will users accept the fact that the platform will store their conversation history including intimate text messages, personal details, and all pictures and photos?
Moreover, the adoption of this platform will make couples depend more on technologies and less on their intuition. So instead of trying to understand the partner better to know what to do to make a date special, the user will just depend on the suggestions of the app. To conclude, I think it is a great initiative for people who are not confident with dating. Thus, it is good for meeting new people but in the long term, it comes to the feelings and the efforts of the partner that is more appreciated than going with the relationship advice Viola.AI gave because it is the ‘most optimal’ one.