Expressing love is one of the most difficult and important things you can do as a human being. There is no correct way to tell someone you love them, to truly express how much they mean to you. Messages get lost in translation. Wives and husbands feel taken for granted. Communicating clearly with your partner sometimes involves significant time and labour. How do we solve this complex problem of human expression and love? Microsoft engineer Guru Ranganathan wants to do so using, you guessed it, tech.
Presenting at TechCrunch’s 2016 Disrupt hackathon event in San Francisco, Ranganathan presented his new chatbot, LoveBot, which takes on the difficult work of telling your partner you love them. Ranganathan came up with the idea for LoveBot because he wanted to create a chat bot that sends messages on behalf of the user, as opposed to one that sends messages to the user. Moreover, Ranganathan explains, “My wife always says I’m not expressive enough and I don’t say ‘I love you’ enough.”
LoveBot sends “messages to designated contacts telling them how much you love and appreciate them or asking them how their day is going.” If you’re not in a serious relationship, fear not, LoveBot is also programmed to send “casual” and “motivational” messages.
Image: TechCrunch
While Ranganathan’s wife might’ve already explained this to him, here’s why LoveBot misses the mark: Automating your messages of love them defeats their purpose. The nice thing about having your partner send you affectionate messages throughout the day is that it makes you feel cared for and thought about.
Tech very well may solve many of the world’s problems, but it will not make your wife believe you love her. Only you can do that!