After all, why would a man or woman subscribe to a dating app unless they were actively willing, able, and ready to find a suitable companion?  That’s why people enter the dating app scene in the first place.

But after a few months or more, subscribers drop off from bad experiences, the lack of finding someone compatible, people posting misleading photos, misrepresentations about their backgrounds, or plain-old incompatibility.

But it’s what happens after a subscriber leaves the dating apps that should be an object lesson for people who don’t know much about AI.  The big question is how AI can be used by unregulated companies and even greedier executives to make billions using someone’s personal information without them even knowing it is being used. More importantly, the average person is not being compensated for its use.

When a person subscribes to a dating site, their photos and entire profile are entered, including their preferences for sex, body type, location, companion status, recreational preferences, and a personal statement about what they are looking for, what they like to do, and how they want to spend their time.

Sensitive information is also collected about the subscriber’s religion, race, ethnicity, political views, sexuality, HIV status, weight, and “sexual life experiences.”  Do not assume this information is protected by the dating companies.

This is a treasure trove of personal information given to an untrustworthy website company, whose intent is to make as much money as possible by posting subscribers’ preferences and personal information.  These companies left ethics in the dust decades ago. Their primary concern is profit. While the subscriber has the good intention of finding a companion, the dating website just wants to make money, even when it includes unethical marketing solicitations.

When a subscriber cancels their subscription, the dating site leaves their information posted as if the member is still active and on the site. This is a lie.  When a person cancels their subscription, they get limited or no access to the site, depending on the dating company.

In the process, active subscribers see this profile of an ex-subscriber and think this person is still active.  The person can send a message to the former subscriber, but they will never get a response because, for the supposed recipient to get the message, they have to re-subscribe.

This creates a constant flow of interactivity and messaging between active subscribers and former subscribers who never get the message unless their dating anxiety rises and they decide to re-subscribe to the service.

“While everyone’s debating whether AI will steal jobs, we’re missing the real threat happening right now.

“Every conversation, every uploaded document, every casual question is quietly building the world’s most detailed profile of you. And most people have no idea it’s happening,” according to Vitali Kovalenko, the author of an article on Substack,

This includes information shared on dating sites.  About 80% may share or sell your personal information for advertising, and sometimes it’s not clear whether personal information is being sold or not (ahem, Bumble, Match)

It’s hard to tell how many subscribers to the large dating sites are active, but the websites create a Pavlovian response when a former subscriber gets a message from a potential date that excites a mix of hormonal chemicals, and can remind them of their loneliness. When these constant messages come through, people often re-subscribe and then find out that many of the responses are from people who are no longer subscribers.  And the dating merry-go-round continues.  No wonder so many people get disgusted with the dating websites.

AI Will Make the Privacy Invasion Complete

So, what does this have to do with AI?

A study from the Mozilla Foundation found that “half of the dating apps we reviewed are already using artificial intelligence.” The Foundation then said, “generative AI is a privacy minefield that we’re not confident already bad-at-privacy dating apps can handle.”

“The biggest dating app company in the world, Match Group, said in a letter to shareholders last year that they plan on “benefit[ting] from advances in AI” and hired a whole new team to work on AI-focused projects. In February, they started a partnership with ChatGPT, promising to “keep things safe and secure,” “with all the privacy bells and whistles in place.”

“But around here (at the Mozilla Foundation), Match Group is better known for privacy dings than bells and whistles. And their relationship with AI has already raised some red flags. Like when, in 2022, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) had to file a petition to learn more about a data-sharing deal that reportedly used images from Match-Group-owned OkCupid to train facial recognition software without users’ knowledge or consent.”  That should sound familiar, and it will get worse in the months ahead.

Dating sites use personal information from millions of current and former subscribers to drive traffic, re-enlist subscribers, and keep a constant flow of messages from live subscribers and ex-subscribers.  This enticement mating dance uses your personal data to drive activity.  Whether it results in a response is immaterial.  It keeps subscribers engaged even as they may or may not realize that the person they are writing to is long gone.

This helps explain the oft-heard term “ghosting,” which is misused.  A real person who engages with another real person and then stops answering on a dating site may stop responding because they are no longer a subscriber or because they have lost interest.  It’s difficult to tell, but my bet is that many people get disgusted with dating sites because they get no response since they are writing to a person who is no longer there.  But their personal photo and profile remain in order to excite a response.

No More Trillionaires from AI

AI will make money from the same personal data that is vacuumed up everywhere on the internet to create customized ads and personalized responses, even when the person never authorizes it.  For people who have not bought a car or made a big purchase that involves getting a credit check, a vendor can ask for your driver’s license and Social Security number and, in a few minutes, see your entire credit history, including what charges you made at the fast-food joint 10 minutes ago.

AI will do this even faster, and AI is all based on large language models that power its responses, which can then become married to your personal preferences and even credit history with or without your knowledge. As it is today, there are no restrictions on how AI gets the information it will use to sell customized ads and make reservations, and shop for a person, but it will all be profit-driven.  And all that profit accrues to the AI company, not the individual who provided it.

This is the ultimate example of monetizing personal data in a monopoly capital society that depends on weak, or increasingly, no regulation.

Congress is in the Stone Age on this issue, but the astronomical valuations of AI companies and their projections for hundreds of billions in funding for new electrical sites and data centers are based on huge returns.

AI is an entire industry based on sucking up data of all types.  “AI systems are so data-hungry and intransparent that we have even less control over what information about us is collected, what it is used for, and how we might correct or remove such personal information. Today, it is basically impossible for people using online products or services to escape systematic digital surveillance across most facets of life—and AI may make matters even worse,” according to Sanford University’s Human Centered Artificial Intelligence group.

So, if ordinary people are fueling a multi-billion-dollar industry using their own labor, aka personal data, in the digital age, they have a right to the profits. Essentially, the AI industry, like the dating sites and social media companies, has created billionaires and trillionaires based on the free labor (aka data) provided by unsuspecting users.  To add insult to injury, social media companies charge subscription and user fees to access your personal information, then turn around and process that data to make more money by selling your labor (aka data) to advertisers.

In the old days, this was called wage theft.  Some companies did not pay for overtime, but when their workers went to court, they got the back wages plus damages.

The same should apply to dating sites, social media companies, and AI that use the labor (aka data) from Internet users and then repurpose it for sale to create a new product that is even more expensive for new users to buy.

This helps explain why trillionaires and the record number of billionaires have been created in the social media-Internet industries.

So, the next time a person is ghosted on a dating website, they should reconsider.  Chances are you have been messaging a person who is no longer there.  The dating site excited and manipulated your hormonal secretions and desire for companionship even as they knew you were wasting your time and emotional energy.  And in the process, they were making money the entire time.

AI will do this exponentially faster and more profitably.  Citizens who use social media should get a piece of the action.  The tech and AI industry does not need more trillionaires, and average Americans do not need to be victimized anymore to mint these top 1%.