The way the Match algorithm learns, he says, is similar to the way the human brain learns. “When you give it stimuli, it forms neural pathways,” he says.

The basic algorithm used to make a matching between applicants and programs is fairly straightforward. An applicant — Alice — starts by applying to her first-choice program.

Because algorithms take multiple factors into account, a dating app might start filtering out potential matches for troubling reasons that betray a person, or a machine's, unconscious bias.