Artificial Intelligence ignited love between an American man and a Mexican woman

Love has a different success rate when the language barrier is present, but in the case of a couple assisted by artificial intelligence, the fire of feelings is burning brightly.
A couple who met thanks to a mutual friend's idea to match them on a blind date spent months using various artificial intelligence tools to bridge the gap between the English and Spanish languages. The two live on both sides of the US-Mexico border.
During their first meeting, which took place at the Applebee's in Mexico where Brenda Ochoa works, the woman and her lover, Leroy Romero, used translation apps like Google Translate to communicate. The two shared a margarita cocktail and, as Romero told the New York Times, did not start the usual first-date conversations because of the language barrier.
"It felt nice without all the mindless talk," says the 45-year-old from Arizona.
After returning home, Romero realized that the Captions app he used for work could also help him in his personal life. Along with the ability to create and edit video custom captions, the app also has some pretty impressive translation capabilities.
Specifically, Captions' powerful AI, which is also available as a standalone app called "Lipdub," can mimic users' natural voices and lip movements when translating their videos into other languages. Although such technology is very disturbing in another context, in this case the AI has clearly done wonders for the love affair between Ochoa and Romero.
Old fashioned
Just four hours away from each other, the couple see each other once a month when Romero travels to Mexico. But when they're apart, they use different AI translation apps to communicate. Romero is clearly a tech-savvy guy and even has a headset with a two-way translation feature that helps him understand what his Mexican significant other is saying in real time.
However, the 45-year-old American did not use any of these services when he called another woman in Mexico: Ochoa's grandmother, whose blessing he asked before proposing to his partner. (He is translating this message himself as he is currently learning Spanish; Ochoa is learning English).
The two are now engaged and plan to tie the knot this summer on Mexico's Rosarita Beach. It is not clear which country they will live in, but the two are also working hard together on their language skills to use when they become husband and wife.
"I try to teach him five flashcards a day when he's with me. He tells me: 'No, four - no, three. However, I am adamant: "No - five!" declared Ochoa.
Artificial intelligence is scary to some people, but in the case of Ochoa and Romero, it helped create something wonderful. /BGNES