RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Artificial intelligence can help us find a match. Mei is an app that analyzes the words and expressions of WhatsApp conversations in order to tell users whether the person they are talking to is hiding a secret, expressing abnormal levels of boredom or having a romantic interest in them.
In the USA and Canada, it has been on the market since June and has been downloaded by over 600,000 people.
“Dating in the future will be largely based on data,” says Es Lee, founder of Mei. The app that speeds up the process of finding a partner will not only tell you if the conversation is on the right track but will also be able to give advice on how to solve the communication gap, that is, how to get closer to the other party.
“If it detects a certain degree of discomfort, such as spontaneity, in which the user is very low and his/her contact very high, it will emphasize this feature and give advice on how to change. The goal is to help users see if they are different from the people with whom they talk so that they can try to relate better,” says Lee.
Mei works with an algorithm that uses neural network models that analyze all the words used in the conversation. “We have models that not only predict whether a relationship is romantic or otherwise but can also predict 30 different personality traits from the writers of texts,” says Lee.
There are no precise words that the algorithm detects as romantic or not, but its developers have confirmed that words like ‘sleep’ and ‘night’ are highly correlated with romantic relationships. However, if users deliberately repeat them with or without meaning, the algorithm immediately realizes and alerts that something strange is happening.
The main problem with such apps is that their users are often very young. According to Mei’s website, you must be at least 13 years old to download it. “However, it’s easy for anyone under 13 to download it simply by saying they’re older. Facebook has installed a system for users to check their age with their ID, but the other apps can be fooled,” said Sergio Maldonado, CEO of the Privacy Cloud.
However, the most significant issue is data protection. Mei does not comply with European regulations for this, according to the documentation on its website. “But they are expected to adapt it before launching it in Europe with updated privacy policy and will probably ask for explicit consents for the company to store user information,” says Maldonado.
A few months ago, there was a wave of concern when Faceapp came out. “No one reads the conditions, and even if they read them, the general public wouldn’t understand them. Moreover, this does not guarantee that users know the truth, because the privacy policies are very generic,” Maldonado adds.
“The app also collects all calls made by users, the entire database of messages and, in the future, may use data usage information, content information, device information, messages, calendar, and location,” said Eusebio Nieva, technical director of Checkpoint in Spain and Portugal.
Many apps obtain information from users. The Google search engine provides a variety of services in exchange for this information. “But in this case, it is taking more information than Google, without a tangible benefit to users,” adds Nieva.
Mei could also expect broken down data. “From conversations and text analysis they can segment data. They get data they can use to learn the users’ preferences, for instance, and then sell it to third parties for advertising purposes,” concludes Nieva.