MOTHERBOARD - Nov 7 - Bernie was the latest technological development in boosting human connection, until the AI-enhanced app was kicked off Tinder. It all started in a bar in 2014. Weary of watching his friends spend their nights swiping left or right on dating apps like Tinder, Justin Long of Vancouver decided to automate the process. He developed Tinderbox that used simple facial recognition software to find a match and craft an introductory message. By 2016, he launched Bernie AI to the public, an improved version of Tinderbox named after a friend who died in 2009. Bernie abruptly shut down in June. Tinder simply decided they didn't want Bernie around anymore. The app used artificial intelligence, deep learning technology, and more advanced facial recognition than its Tinderbox predecessor. It eventually learned to identify other objects in the photo aside from the person's face and could develop introductions based on those objects. While Bernie may have shut down, other apps have stepped into the void. Hily takes a slightly different approach in that it disregards visual attractiveness as the basis of its search and instead looks for similar interests, word choice, and mutual likes. It had ~35k users in a closed beta earlier this month.
by James Jackson
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Summarized by the Courtland Brooks team
