Soft launching your new LLM

Dating is hard. Or so The Cave hears. It is, after all, simply a dark and empty hole devoid of emotions. On second thoughts, perhaps it does have something in common with modern courtship.

As the grind of dating apps leads to many swaying the swipe, the alternatives span the range of unpalatable to outright terrifying. 

Dating coach Damien Diecke reports a surge in men asking for help in approaching potential partners, terrified by the manosphere-influenced response of rejection and denouncement. 

Diecke is not the only wingperson filling a void of awkward interactions. Professional matchmaker Lauren Hunter charges up to $15,000 to act as your own personal matchmaker. It’s unclear whether this is a monthly retainer or a one-off project fee.

In China, an influencer by the name of Granny Wang has amassed 7 million TikTok followers as she single-handedly attempts to reverse China’s plummeting marriage rate. 

What appears to be a common theme across countries, dating models, and even ages, is the attitude towards dating men. 

Corrine Low, a Wharton professor, rejected men and became a lesbian following her first (heterosexual) marriage after making what she calls “an evidence-based decision”. Which is the kind of cold, unemotional thinking you’d normally…no, let’s not.

Things have gotten so bad, more and more people are turning to ChatGPT in the search for companionship. The r/MyBoyfriendIsAI subreddit has more than 21,000 members, and went into meltdown when Open AI moved everyone to their new model, changing the personality of the LLM. The dystopian equivalent of having the ‘where is this going’ chat. 

What is perhaps lost in the rush to gawp at AI boyfriends is the tidal wave of irony that people, despairing of men, are turning to technology built and owned by some of the worst examples of the gender out there. 

Then again, true love has never made sense. For many, ChatGPT had them at “There was an error generating a response.”