Dating apps use AI algorithms to help match singles, and a new study finds the systems may be influencing users to swipe right on certain potential mates. Scientists in Spain wanted to find out what influences users, so they presented a group of test subjects with a series of fictitious suitors. Some of them were overtly promoted as highly compatible while other were favored more subtly--their photos just appeared more often. The researchers found participants were more likely to choose profiles that appeared frequently than those explicitly labeled as'an ideal partner.' This suggests people accept'scientific' advice for more intellectual subjects like politics, the researchers say, but prefer to go on intuition when it comes to romance.

Sentences handed down by artificial intelligence would be fairer, more efficient, transparent and accurate than those of sitting judges, according to Swinburne researchers. Dean of Swinburne Law School, Professor Dan Hunter, and Swinburne researcher Professor Mirko Bagaric say artificial intelligence (AI) could improve sentencing procedures by removing emotional bias and human error. In a paper for the Criminal Law Journal, Professors Bagaric and Hunter argue that AI sentencing would better identify, sort and calibrate all the variables associated with sentencing, including criminal history, education, drug/alcohol use, emotional motivations and employment. The pair argue that sentencing decisions are often influenced by more than 200 considerations, many of which are variables which have been established prior to court hearings. Professor Bagaric says subconscious bias plays a large part in sentencing in which judges or magistrates hand down harder penalties to offenders of a particular race or background.