The First Computer Dating Service: Operation Match
Radio Diaries
Radio Diaries & Radiotopia
4.6 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 18 December 2025
⏱️ 11 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Looking for love is an art, not a science. People have been trying to crack the code, with mixed success, for a long time.
This week we're going back to the 1960s, when a couple Harvard students had an idea.
Businesses had started using a new technology called the computer to process payroll or match a client with the right type of insurance. What if these same computers could be used to get a date?
This is the story of the very first computer dating service, Operation Match.
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| 1:20.7 | Looking for love is an art, not a science. |
| 1:24.0 | People have been trying to crack the code with mixed success for a long time, whether through |
| 1:28.5 | matchmakers or speed dating or these days artificial intelligence. |
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