社交神器Tinder可爲你尋找約會對象

When I first met Sean Rad, back in 2013, Tinder was a blossoming dating app. It was known primarily for, how shall I put it, casual relationships.

追溯到2013年，當我第一次遇見西恩·拉德的時候，Tinder還只是一款在起步初期的約會APP。它主要有名在，怎麼說呢，能讓人們隨機約會。

Back then he told me Tinder was "good for humanity", a line I instantly latched onto as being faintly ridiculous, and wonderful for a headline.

當時他告訴我Tinder是“爲了人類的利益”的時候，我的第一反應就是這有點兒可笑，但是會是個精彩的頭條。

But now when I think of how Tinder has impacted my life, and those of several people close to me, I start to see what he was getting at.

但現在想想Tinder是怎麼影響我的生活的，想想那些因此而接近了我的人，我慢慢開始理解他當年所說的東西。

Life-changing things have happened to millions of people thanks to that simple swipe-yes-swipe-no interface.

當今簡便易操作的電子設備界面已經改變了數百萬人的生活。

I know people who have married their Tinder matches. I know many others who are in serious relationships.

我認識一個人，她就嫁給了在Tinder上匹配到的一個人。

And yes, I know many people who have had casual hook-ups and one-night stands. Yet why that last point is seen as a negative to be joked about I'll never know. People have been doing that in bars for well over 100 years.

我知道有許多人會認真對待一段感情，我也知道有許多人喜歡拈花惹草四處找一夜情。但我不知道爲什麼後者會一直以來成爲人們貶低嘲笑的對象。人們在酒吧裏像那樣做已經有一百多年了。

Anyway, Tinder is growing up. It's now a serious technology company tackling one of life's most important matters, and is by far the most popular dating app worldwide.

但無論如何，Tinder正迅速地發展着。一個非常強大的科技公司正試圖介入影響人們的終身大事，正是靠這款到目前爲止風靡全球的約會APP。

Mr Rad is the chairman of both Tinder and Swipe Ventures, the arm of the company designed to buy other dating-related technologies.

拉德先生現在是Tinder和Swipe Ventures兩家公司的董事長，它們是開發與約會相關的技術的兩家巨頭公司。

One of which is artificial intelligence. And its collision with dating might be the most intriguing application of AI yet.

其中一家公司開發的是人工智能，它與約會這種事碰撞產生的火花，或許會讓這款智能APP變得極爲有趣。

Still, even though it can be difficult to admit, dating really is a numbers game, and right now the data Tinder uses is primitive: age, location and mutual friends - as well as a few mutual interests as defined by what you "like" on Facebook.

即使我們不願意承認，但約會的確就像一場數字遊戲，Tinder只是考察最簡單最原始的條件：年齡，住址和共同好友 - 就像Facebook通過你點讚的內容從而確定你的興趣一樣。

Why not add a few parameters and make it even more likely you will click?

爲什麼往其中不多加幾個因素呢？這樣我們就更有可能點開匹配給我們的約會對象了。