A MIT student pranked Harvard students with a fake dating app, then turned it into a real one.

A MIT student pranked Harvard students with a fake dating app, then turned it into a real one. To test his computer science skills, MIT first-year Liam Kronman created the “Harvard Marriage Pact” after becoming interested in how dating app algorithms work. While Harvard Marriage Pact didn’t launch with a functioning algorithm, Kronman replicated the form to sign up for a dating app, which quickly spread through Harvard’s campus while garnering “an overwhelming number of responses,” according to Kronman. The service was forced to shut down after another site called Marriage Pact (a matchmaking service that started at Stanford and expanded to 64 campuses) called out the similarity between the two services. Students who signed up for the prank dating service and provided personal information also called out Harvard Marriage Pact over concern it was scamming them, but Kronman didn’t stop there. After addressing how the prank was “anti-climactic,” he got to work on a new app named ExExEx, a service with a functioning algorithm playing on the idea that someone would be compatible with their ex’s ex’s ex. The algorithm only works when someone and their ex sign up for the site, and Kronman hopes to expand the concept as more young singles continue showing interest in the new service. (Insider)