Machine Learning + Love

Note to Self

WNYC Studios

Self-improvement, Tech, Note, Npr, Education, Public, Wnyc, Manoush, York, To, New, Self, Radio, Business, Technology, Relationships, City, Society & Culture, Zomorodi, Newtechcity

4.7 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 12 February 2014

⏱️ 14 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Log onto an online dating site and you are asking a machine for romantic assistance. That's cool, but you might as well understand how it works, right?

There's an algorithm picking and choosing which profile to put in front of which users, and sometimes it works—roughly a third of marriages these days begin online—and other times it doesn't. On this week's New Tech City, host Manoush Zomorodi tracks down some smart people who are writing, and improving the matching systems of dating sites.

Kenneth Cukier, data editor at The Economist, explains "you'd be a fool to try to do online dating without machine intelligence, without machine learning." So we get him to explain what that means.

Kang Zhao, professor of management sciences at the University of Iowa, is a very smart guy who has a plan to make sure the matches in front of you are people you'd actually like, and who will actually respond to your messages. "There are ways to improve [profiles] because the information you have in your profile is sometimes just too much."

And then we put all this to someone responsible for a whole lot of online meetings, VP of matching for eHarmony, Steve Carter, who says a few unexpected things, including that dating sites only work if you shake up your rigid mindset and embrace the real life, offline magic of face-to-face dating.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, friend. This is an episode of Note to Self, but from when we used to be called New Text City. Same good content. Just the old name. Enjoy.
0:11.4	Hi, it's Manoosh Samarote, the host of New Text City. And if you're single, well, chances are you have a love-hate relationship with online dating.
0:20.0	You know, I think that in this day and age, it's kind of the only way of meeting people outside of your group.
0:26.0	And, you know, I have lots of fantastic friends, but none with any men that they could set me up with.
0:32.0	Maybe you like 15 dates or so. Yeah, they're all nice, but just not for me, you know.
0:37.0	Life is busy and you have to like dedicate so much time to checking your profile and hanging out with people you don't know.
0:43.0	Those were singles, trying to learn tips on mastering the art of dating in the digital age.
0:49.0	And the event was appropriately held at a computer store, TechServe in Manhattan.
0:55.0	This, my friend, is the state of mating in America. And so this week, on New Text City, the frontier of finding love.
1:04.0	And what it could take to make finding a match online less demoralizing and time consuming.
1:11.0	I ended up with a lot of strange people trying to save me from the devil. Yeah, it was really not pleasant.
1:17.0	And then one date that didn't really quite work out so well. And it was food poisoning.
1:22.0	So, you know, I really, I really didn't have such a good experience. And I thought, you know, this isn't for me.
1:27.0	But I know several friends who've met the loves of their lives online. So I'm thinking this 2014 might be the year.
1:35.0	Hope Springs Eternal. That was Suzanne Taylor, Lucas Lloyd and Anna Marie Smith talking to WNYC's Charming and Marie for Tolly.
1:44.0	Is there anything else you want to fill up?
1:46.0	Ah, yes. Are you available at all the future?
1:49.0	Ha. And that was Greg Packer. You can't blame a man for trying. He was hitting on Anne Marie.
1:54.0	But he's got the right strategy. Play the odds, date as much as you can, especially if the computer knows there's a good chance of a love match.
2:02.0	Yes, love comes with statistics and probability these days. But what if the matches suggested to you were just better?
2:11.0	Don't worry. You don't need to be a programmer to find your special someone.
2:16.0	Because we found a really smart guy who might be able to do the digital dirty work for you.
	...

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