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Neuroscientist: I Built a Sleazy Dating App. It Reunited Refugee Families.

2026-05-23 Science & Technology
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Dr Brian Keating
Dr Brian Keating
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Description

The same technology that powered a viral "hot or not" game could find a missing child in a refugee camp of a million faces in under five minutes. A neuroscientist who built real-world AI systems says the most “sleazy” app she ever made secretly reunited refugee families — and it actually worked. What looks like a dating trick turns into a story about how AI can reshape lives when used with intent. Vivienne Ming is a neuroscientist, AI researcher, and entrepreneur who has built machine learning systems across healthcare, education, and humanitarian work. We cover: why a viral “attractiveness” game was actually training a mind-reading model, how crowdsourced choices became an early deep learning system, what happens when AI maps how humans perceive faces, and the refugee search tool that could find a missing child in minutes. Watch the full one hour coversation Neuroscientist: We’re Not Ready for What This AI Discovered https://youtu.be/rVkZmdcpSdE ——— 📬 Get the transcript, fascinating bonus content, and my Monday M.A.G.I.C. Message: https://briankeating.com/yt 🌠 Have a .edu email and live in the USA 🇺🇸? You automatically win a meteorite: https://BrianKeating.com/edu 🔔 Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/DrBrianKeating?sub_confirmation=1 🎯 Support Into the Impossible on Patreon — get my weekly M.A.G.I.C. Message, unfiltered bonus content, and live monthly Office Hours with me: https://www.patreon.com/drbriankeating ⭐ Join this channel for perks, monthly Office Hours, and your name in the Member Roster at the end of every episode: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmXH_moPhfkqCk6S3b9RWuw/join 📚 My books: Losing the Nobel Prize (memoir): http://amzn.to/2sa5UpA Think Like a Nobel Prize Winner: https://a.co/d/03ezQFu Focus Like a Nobel Prize Winner: https://a.co/d/hi50U9U Galileo's Dialogue (first-ever audiobook): https://a.co/d/iZPi9Un 🌐 More: 🏄‍♂️ Twitter: https://twitter.com/DrBrianKeating ✍️ Blog: https://briankeating.com/blog 🎙️ Audio-only: https://briankeating.com/podcast e #AI #refugees #machinelearning #neuroscience #intotheimpossible #briankeating #science #physics #astronomy #cosmology #podcast #universe

Top Comments (4)

@DrBrianKeating 2026-04-29

Watch the full video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVkZmdcpSdE *What was your favorite takeaway from this conversation?* _Please join my mailing list to get _*_FREE_*_ notes & resources from this show!_ Click 👉 http://briankeating.com/yt

3
@igorsawicki4905 2026-05-23

wtf?

2 1 replies
@petermccavington8232 2026-05-23

Oh

2
@DrBrianKeating 2026-05-23

How did Ming’s viral “attractiveness” game actually train a mind-reading model, how crowdsourced choices became an early deep learning system, what happens when AI maps how humans perceive faces, and the refugee search tool that could find a missing child in minutes. Watch the full one hour coversation Neuroscientist: We’re Not Ready for What This AI Discovered https://youtu.be/rVkZmdcpSdE

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