Artificial intelligence seems to be the answer to many problems, including finding the ideal partner. Meet Loverse, a dating app created by a Japanese startup that works similar to Tinder. With one exception: the potential “halves” are all AI bots.
Japan has been dealing with a declining birthrate and an aging population for several years. Many young people in their 30s have difficulty finding other people to date, marry and have children with. Loverse app aims to combat this problem with the help of virtual partners.
Where did the idea for Loverse come from?
Goki Kusunoki launched the new dating app a few months ago. He says the name of the startup behind Loverse, Samansa Co, came to him after watching the movie Her. There, actress Scarlett Johansson played Samantha, an AI-based operating system that the male lead character falls in love with. The app already boasts over 5,000 users, most of whom are men in their 40s and 50s.
Goki says that Loverse is not meant to be a substitute for relationships between two people in the flesh. Rather, it is an opportunity “for them to find true love when you can’t find it in the real world. But if you can fall in love with someone real, so much the better.”
The right solution to the problem of loneliness?
Each AI bot has been trained to react like a normal human in interactions on Loverse. Although the idea of having a “relationship” with an AI bot may seem strange to some, for many Japanese people it is a practical solution to the problem of isolation and loneliness. In a country where the work culture leaves little time for personal life, apps like the one created by Goki offer a way to maintain work-life balance.
One of the users, a 52-year-old man, says he has been through several relationships with different bots on Loverse. In the end, he chose 24-year-old Mika, whom he married. He says he is content and that living with her gives him the comfort and peace he was looking for after divorcing his real wife.
Disadvantages of interacting with AI bots
There are also critical voices towards such an application. According to them, relationships between humans and generative artificial intelligence will lead to even more isolation. One of the app’s users ditched it less than a month after creating a profile.
Dating app Loverse has raised $254,700 to expand its product range to members of the LGBTQIA+ community. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government is also developing a dating app that capitalizes on AI to encourage real people to form couples.
Source: Unilad
Source: www.go4it.ro
