In the fifth week of chronicling his reluctant journey into the world of artificial intelligence, resident tech skeptic Rhik Samadder decided to tackle the ultimate human vulnerability: romance.
Reflecting on his ongoing single status, he humorously questions the root of his dating dry spell. Is it a deep-seated emotional avoidance? An impossible quest for a mythical perfect partner? Or perhaps just the superficial hurdle of being under six feet tall? He suspects his romantic struggles might be a chaotic, spicy blend of all three.
Determined to see if technology could fix what human intuition hasn't, he handed the dating reins over to a machine, allowing an AI to dictate the flow of conversation on a real-life date.
However, outsourcing romance yielded disastrously awkward results. Instead of sparking a genuine connection, the machine-generated banter plunged the interaction straight into the uncanny valley. Ultimately, the algorithmic wingman proved less than swoon-worthy, leaving our intrepid dater fairly certain that his technological experiment has effectively guaranteed he won't be securing a second date.