(CNN) -- Jack is trying to find his life partner. He tried Hinge and invite-only apps. He even paid for a premium subscription to Bumble, but now he's turning to AI.
Jack, a 38-year-old data science major living in San Francisco, asked ChatGPT to write a short, fun bio for a dating app. He chose a pseudonym for this article because of his concerns about renewing his visa soon.
About a year ago, the chatbot became his assistant in choosing his clothes and learning to play the guitar, and he even describes him as “Alfred to Batman.” But the profile he copied to his Hinge profile, in which he talked about his love of rock music, long drives, sports and laughter, did not improve his chances of finding a partner.
Jack is one of a growing number of dating app users who are using artificial intelligence to accomplish some of the dating steps. According to the Pew Research Center, more than half of Americans under the age of 30 have used a dating app, while artificial intelligence has become a way to bypass the number of profiles and repetitive conversations.
Applications, in turn, are trying to bridge the distance between virtual dating and direct meetings. Bumble is moving to use artificial intelligence to match people instead of scrolling through files, Grindr is testing conversations between bots to assess the suitability of people before meeting, while Hinge provides assistance in creating profiles and suggesting conversation starters.
Joy Ramaprasad, professor of information systems at the University of Maryland, believes that anyone seeking to meet his life partner may benefit from any tool that helps him move from the virtual world to reality. But critics believe that these technologies may reduce users' ability to control the selection process, even though dating apps have relied on algorithms for years.
The Romantic Turing Test
Using ChatGPT to start conversations has become more popular, according to Katherine Coduto, an assistant professor of media sciences at Boston University, who attributes this to the pressure users feel when writing their first messages.
But this approach may create a misleading impression of the person. Kylie Baxa, a 23-year-old resident of New York, discovered that some of the people she dated used artificial intelligence to learn details about her favorite series without watching it, just to find what they had in common with her.
Baksa says that she supports artificial intelligence, but rejects its use in dating, considering that human communication is already declining, to the point that approaching a person and flirting with him has become difficult.
Coduto warns against a person thinking that he has established a real connection with another, only to discover upon meeting him that the other party is not what he imagined.
Tricking others into accepting a date
Jack experimented with uploading his photos to ChatGPT to choose the best fit for his profile, and requested photos that showed his fun and spontaneous side. The app suggested a photo of him with a dog, saying it made him look cute and delicate. However, using artificial intelligence did not achieve the results he wanted, and he believes that his friends are better able to help him present himself in an authentic way.
Ramaprasad agrees with this, noting that a friend writing a personal profile may reveal more about the personality of its owner and what he is looking for than the text he writes himself.
The problem is not limited to disappointment, but may extend to the issue of consent to an intimate relationship. Douglas Zitko, a professor of computer science at the University of Michigan-Flint, warns that misleading content generated by artificial intelligence may influence the other person's decision whether to enter into an intimate relationship, although there is no standard definition of informed consent in this context.
Do you treat loneliness?
Mihir Manohar, a 32-year-old resident of New York, spent about an hour answering a questionnaire about his preferences via the Amata app. In return, the app suggested Casey as a partner, and arranged for them to meet at a wine bar. Their relationship lasted ten months at the time of preparing the report.
Manohar rejected traditional dating apps because of the constant swiping, generic messages and sudden disappearances without explanation. Newer apps, like Amata, Stitch, and Ditto, ask questions about users' values and interests to offer fewer choices and more tailored to their preferences.
Amata founder, Ludovic Horo, said that the application's goal is to transfer users to real-life meetings as quickly as possible, considering that artificial intelligence may help confront the crisis of loneliness exacerbated by social isolation and the absence of meaningful human connections. But he warned that more time online could exacerbate the problem rather than solve it.
In contrast, critics fear that the automation and acceleration of dating will reduce users' ability to make their own decisions.
How to protect yourself?
Coduto advises verifying the account by taking a direct photo to confirm the identity, and paying attention to the diversity of photos in profiles, such as photos with friends and family or while engaging in different activities. She also recommends noting recurring phrases in messages that may indicate the use of artificial intelligence.
But she points out that dating apps are not transparent enough about storing, analyzing, and sharing personal data, which requires paying attention to what information the user chooses to reveal.
Zitko stresses that the use of artificial intelligence does not replace taking safety precautions when meeting a stranger for the first time, in light of the possibility of being exposed to physical harm or sexual assault.
An ironic result of this expansion in the use of artificial intelligence may be that some people return to live dating. Coduto expects that over-reliance on these technologies will push users to look for alternatives, such as running clubs and speed dating events, and return to meeting people face-to-face.
