Silence clung to the neon-lit room
Silence clung to the neon-lit room, broken only by the soft hum of a cooling fan. Stefan Grayson adjusted the collar of his sharp, navy blue suit. The color remained effortless and modern—a stark contrast to the retro aesthetic of the 2035 glass-panel train he was riding. Every surface was reflective, like the interior of a massive smartphone, and Stefan’s figure was copied endlessly in the mirrored walls. He frowned at his fragmented image, tightening his cufflinks. Tonight, he needed perfection—there was no margin for error.
In the corner of his vision, a translucent prompt lit up on the glass of his augmented reality shades. SynMatch Update: Natalya is in the red zone. Emotional reading: Doubtful. Suggested conversational tone: Playful. Emphasize her intelligence.
Stefan resisted the urge to groan. "Playful" wasn’t his strong suit. Neither, for that matter, was dating. In fact, everything about his relationship with Natalya Alvarez was artificial—every conversation analyzed, every hesitation smoothed over by SynMatch, the premium AI-driven relationship management app that had become his constant companion.
Six months ago
Six months ago, dating felt like wading into a minefield blindfolded. Stefan sat in his office, bleary-eyed and overworked, swiping through dating profiles with all the enthusiasm of someone tackling a tax return. After his three-year engagement ended in a blaze of cruel texts and ignored calls, romance had seemed like a losing game. Then SynMatch entered the picture, promising "a measurable approach to love." Its new tagline—When Cupid Needs a Scientist—had seemed hopeful but absurd.
"She’s not going to respond if you use ellipses, Stefan," the AI had chirped after analyzing his first draft message to Natalya. "Statistically speaking, women find ellipses... questionable.”
"I'm not a statistical outlier?" he'd asked dryly. But its advice had worked. And Natalya had sparked something Stefan thought he'd lost: wonder.
The train slowed
The train slowed to a whisper before gliding to a halt. Stefan stepped into the cool night air of the 98th percentile neighborhood. Every house on this street had been SynMatch verified for "romantic ambiance." Natalya’s home matched her sharp intellect—a sleek post-modern structure that could pass for a luxury spaceship.
As Stefan approached the door, his glasses lit up again. SynMatch Insight: Natalya has a high affinity for literature. Bring up the conversational thread on Murakami you started during coffee. Previous compatibility score: 87%.
But something about tonight felt... off. The AI’s prompts—remarkably aligned before—felt clunky, even irrelevant. Natalya opened the door, her emerald-green dress matching her piscine elegance, but her smile didn’t quite reach her eyes. She was holding something.
“I found this in your car last night,” she said, holding up... his glasses?
Stefan’s blood ran cold. His fingers traced the frames on his face, feeling the wire-thin structures beneath his fingertips. A look of mild horror flashed across her features.
“You’re wearing backups, aren’t you?" Natalya said quietly, her voice echoing with disbelief. "I suspected it for weeks, but I didn’t want to be that person. So I left my apartment tracker on and dug a little deeper... You were never really speaking to me. You were speaking to this.” She dropped his AI glasses onto the ground, the lenses cracking beneath their weight.
The first date replayed
The first date replayed in his mind. Natalya laughed when he quoted Murakami; her laughter seemed like a home he hadn’t stepped into for years. But had the AI crafted even that moment? Was his love for her born from anomalies in an algorithm instead of raw, unrefined chemistry? It had guided him through every interaction like a cheat code, leaving him unsure if their connection was flesh-and-blood real or digital fabrication.
“What do you want me to say?” Stefan finally mustered, guilt slurring his words.
“An admission.” Natalya stepped back. “That’s all. We let machines curate our playlists, pack our schedules, and pick our dinner. But having them engineer our hearts—that’s where I draw the line.”
He watched her
He watched her express everything so human: anger, heat, tenderness…but it broke through layers of carefully programmed ease crafted into SynMatch’s data coaches.
And he wonders further.
The Source...check out the great article that inspired this amazing short story: Sex, Love, and Algorithms: How AI is Revolutionizing Our Intimate Lives
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