As Tech Tries to Hack Love, Is It Killing It Instead?

SINGULARITY HUB - Finding love is hard, and for the past decade or two, technology has been trying to help. Many of the algorithms used on dating apps aim to personalize users' experiences, learning what type of people they like or what qualities they're looking for. In a panel discussion titled Optimized Romance: Is Tech Killing the Mood? at South by Southwest last week, culture journalist Cecelia Girr, Snack App founder Kim Kaplan, NASA systems engineer Rashied Amini, and psychotherapist Babita Spinelli shared their thoughts on how technology has helped and simultaneously harmed our romantic lives, and what the future might hold for dating tech. "Romance was once about mystery and excitement and this inexplicable magic, but increasingly we're seeing it defined by data and DNA and science," said Girr. "No algorithm will ever really be able to identify "the one" for us. "You're not two people in the universe alone, you're living in a dynamic world," said Rashied Amini. What algorithms can do, in Amini's opinion, is help people improve their self-knowledge and identify relationship patterns that may emerge. Kim Kaplan started Snack App, which uses a Tiktok-like model where users upload videos showing their personalities and interests. "Our goal is to create an extra barrier that forces looky-lous out and lets people showcase themselves," Kaplan said.