Motherboard: Great, Dating Apps Are Getting More Hellish Thanks to AI Chatbots. “A group claiming to be disenfranchised ex-Tinder employees gone rogue has built an app that uses AI chatbots to talk to women for men on dating apps, in an effort to combat the ‘disadvantages the average man’ faces in online dating.”
Stanford University: Was this written by a human or AI? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. “AI-generated text is increasingly making its way into our daily lives. Auto-complete in emails and ChatGPT-generated content are becoming mainstream, leaving humans vulnerable to deception and misinformation. Even in contexts where we expect to be conversing with another human – like online dating – the use of AI-generated text is growing. A survey from McAfee indicates that 31% of adults plan to or are already using AI in their dating profiles.”
Arizona State University: More internet matches are leading to happy marriages. “According to a 2013 study by social psychologist J. T. Cacioppo, the internet is responsible for roughly one in every three marriages. And those who use online dating end up being slightly more satisfied with their relationship and marriage than those who met in more traditional ways.”
Brigham Young University: BYU nursing professors unearth disturbing trends in sexual assault cases connected to dating apps. “In the first large-scale study of the relationship between dating apps and sexual assault, researchers find violent sexual predators use dating apps to target vulnerable victims.”
WIRED: I Uncovered an Army of Fake Men on Hinge. “IN THE LAND of love, there are fakes, and there are fakes. There’s the realization that the flesh-and-blood person you’ve spent time with is inauthentic in some way, the old-fashioned bluffing of the Homo sapiens mating game. And then there are the unnaturally smooth selfies and stilted messages that suggest an AI-generated facsimile of a person. On dating app Hinge, which claims to serve those seeking life-long connections, there appear to be a lot of these.”
WIRED: How I Learned Confidence From Online Posers. “I learned that quite a few dating app users ignore posted filters and explicit preferences. They insist that if you just meet them, you’ll love them…. I, on the other hand, was looking for a connection. I’d never once considered misrepresenting myself. I know that I’m not perfect, but I felt dejected after wasting my time and energy (as well as theirs). Ultimately, I decided to do some research to find out what I was missing.”
Daily Dot: EXCLUSIVE: Anti-vax dating site that let people advertise ‘mRNA FREE’ semen left all its user data exposed. “After the Daily Dot set up a test account on the platform, GeopJr was able to change the account’s private email address, username, and profile picture. GeopJr was also able to edit a public post made by the Daily Dot and change its wording. Other data such as the site’s backups could be downloaded or deleted. GeopJr was able to give away $15 per month subscriptions to Unjected as well as reply to and delete help center tickets and reported posts.”
CNN: She warned other women on TikTok about her ex-boyfriend. Then she received a cease-and-desist. “While women aren’t alone in using online forums to post about connections from dating apps, a Pew Research Center study found that young women are much more likely than their male counterparts to report having their safety threatened when online dating, whether that be receiving unwanted communications or unsolicited sexual images, or being berated.”
Bleeping Computer: LGBTQ+ community warned of extortionists abusing dating apps. “According to the FTC, the criminals pose as potential romantic partners on LGBTQ+ dating apps, sending explicit photos to their targets and asking them to reciprocate. If they fall for it, the victims get blackmailed into paying a ransom, usually in untraceable gift cards, under the threat of having sexual imagery they shared with the scammers leaked to their family, friends, or employers.”
The Atlantic: The Teens Slipping Through the Cracks on Dating Apps. “When dating apps started becoming popular in the early 2010s, many people feared that seeking romance on the internet might be dangerous. Since then, online dating has become a normal part of how adults find new relationships. Still, one uncomfortable aspect of these apps remains mostly unaddressed: the ease with which underage users can create profiles and risk being preyed on by adults.”
Engadget: Grindr location data was reportedly for sale for at least three years (updated). “Grindr’s past willingness to share sensitive data may have been more problematic than previously thought. The Wall Street Journal understands precise Grindr user location data was collected from the online ad network MoPub (once owned by Twitter) and put on sale through its partner company UberMedia (now UM) since ‘at least’ 2017.”
Arizona State University: Online dating is booming, changing in pandemic era. “Online dating is the number one way to meet a romantic partner in the U.S., says Liesel Sharabi, assistant professor in the Hugh Downs School of Human Communication and director of the Relationships and Technology Lab at Arizona State University. Sharabi, whose research focuses on the connection between communication technologies and interpersonal relationships, says the growth of dating applications over the past decade continues to attract more people to the digital ecosystem and break taboos that once kept hesitant users away from the platform.”
Mashable: What will dating be like in 2022?. “Given the ride the last couple years have been, what will 2022 bring us in terms of finding love? Dating experts have a few predictions, including a continued use of virtual dating, a push towards serious relationships for some and non-monogamy for others, and an emphasis on mental health and vulnerability.”
The Verge: Facebook Dating is getting audio chats. “Facebook Dating, the company’s dating service, doesn’t appear to be as popular as other dating apps, but the company is introducing some new features to make it more useful for virtual dating, which has boomed during the pandemic.”
ProPublica: Addressing Rape in Four Minutes or Less: Dating App Reps Left Unprepared to Respond to Assault Victims. “The multibillion-dollar online dating industry has no meaningful standards for responding to reports of offline harm and removing those responsible from its platforms, Columbia Journalism Investigations and ProPublica found. Despite pledges to shield users from sexual predators, the companies have done little to abide by them. Most companies have loosely defined procedures that force employees to rely on their own judgment. Dating app users who report an attack, like [Natalie] Dong, often have to badger companies to take action.”
