AI Can Also Become a Love Coach
Mr. Wang, a 32-year-old man, has been single all his life and recently he finally met someone he likes in his workplace. Mr. Wang wants to take the next step, but he lacks dating experience and desperately needs advice from others. Unfortunately, his friends are either playboys or already married with children, and they don’t have the time to listen to Mr. Wang’s love troubles. In a desperate situation, Mr. Wang decides to try a new method – seeking advice from AI.
Yes, AI is not only a helpful assistant at work, but now it can also guide humans on “how to make friends.” An AI dating assistant app called “RIZZ.AI” has recently gained popularity among Chinese users with a monthly fee of $9.99. According to Decrypt, RIZZ.AI can simulate a dating environment, allowing users to practice their communication skills and reduce the risk of saying the wrong things or causing awkwardness in real-life dates.
After trying it out, the journalist from Decrypt mentioned that RIZZ.AI presents the pressures of real-world dating through timed interactions, forcing users to think quickly and respond. For example, when the AI asks the user, “How was your day today?” if the user only answers, “Hmm, it was okay, pretty much the same as usual, um… (while thinking about the next topic to chat about),” the AI will quickly respond with a heavy blow, saying, “Okay, it seems like you’re not good with words… how awkward.” However, the journalist also mentioned that after multiple interactions, RIZZ.AI’s evaluation system detects the context and provides suggestions. For example, if the user is too reserved in their interaction with the AI, it will suggest that they should be more direct. And when the user becomes bolder in subsequent interactions, the AI will give encouragement.
The strict training of RIZZ.AI has its reasons, as the official website states, “Speaking is like a muscle, so should we train it like we train our muscles?”
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AI love coaches are popular among China’s younger generation
There are increasing numbers of AI love coach programs on the market, such as Meeno, which provides relationship advice, Simulated Date Coach trained with GPT models, and many other apps with the name “RIZZ” (Rizz is short for “charisma,” a popular term among the Z generation). You might be wondering if anyone really needs these apps. According to a survey by AI dating tool AttractionTruth, 20% of heterosexual men worldwide have started using AI to enhance their online dating experience. In addition, a report from the dating website OkCupid shows that users who have a positive view of ChatGPT have almost 40% more matches compared to those who are skeptical about the technology because they can make better use of AI to improve the interaction and matching process.
In fact, according to a recent report by the South China Morning Post, socially inept and long-term single young people in China are actively using AI love coaches to improve their dating skills. A report from the China Youth Daily Social Survey Center in 2023 showed that young people generally lack social skills and find it difficult to make friends outside their comfort zone. Among the more than 2,000 single respondents in the survey, 60% said they had fewer than two close friends. Apps like RIZZ.AI allow nervous young people to interact with AI characters in virtual scenarios and learn how to handle various dating situations.
Business Insider explains that while Chinese society is seeking assistance from AI love coaches, the country’s marriage and birth rates are declining rapidly. In the first three months of 2024, the marriage rate in China dropped by 8.2% compared to the same period last year. The government has also implemented policies such as providing cash incentives for childbirth and additional paid marriage leave in hopes of increasing the marriage and birth rates.
AI brings new opportunities for the new generation of young people who are accustomed to immersing themselves in the digital world and have difficulty with real-life interactions. However, even though AI can improve social skills and self-confidence, one must be cautious of the negative effects of excessive reliance, which can limit the user’s accumulation of real-life social experience.
Sources:
Decrypt, Time, Business Insider