Hinge CEO Justin McLeod said he doesn't believe artificial intelligence is a cure for loneliness that plagues young people.
In a recent interview with Nilay Patel on the “Decoder” podcast, McLeod spoke a lot about the role of AI in dating. The founders of Hinge, who are skeptical of using AI for dating, have affirmed that they cannot completely replace human connections.
His stance is Mark Zuckerberg, who contrasts with the stance of another leader who built his business through online social interaction. In an interview with podcast host Dwarkesh Patel, Meta's CEO recently said that “the average person has more demand for meaningfulness,” suggesting that AI can meet that demand.
McLeod is opposed to the sentiment that “AI chatbots can be your friend,” he said in a podcast released Monday, pointing to Zuckerberg's remarks.
McLeod said the “very reductive view” of friendship misses the point of what a constructive relationship is.
“The most rewarding part of being in a friendship is that you can take risks and become vulnerable to share experiences with other conscious entities for someone else,” McLeod said.
While AI friends may say all the right things and become available at the right time, unlike human friends, he said, relationships are likely to not feel good in the long run.
“Ultimately, just like junk food, people feel less healthy and more drained over time, replacing relationships that they should grow in the real world,” he said.
According to McLeod, Hinge will not acquire a virtual romantic partner with AI.
Meanwhile, Zuckerberg is taking part in AI all on the social platform he runs. Tech Giant launched Meta AI as a Stand-Alone app in April. It comes with AI assistant tools and scrollable feeds, allowing creators to share images generated to their own AI. Zuckerberg told Dwarkesh that it's still “very early” in the field where AI girlfriends and therapists can look like humans.
Not all the efforts of Meta AI have won. He deployed an AI assistant featuring celebrity similarities like Kendall Jenner, and posted AI-generated content in 2024 until it shut down celebrity accounts within a year. On the April “This Last Weekend” podcast, he said that AI “probably doesn't replace actual connections.”
“There's something better about physical connections. “But the reality is that people just don't have connections and feel more time than they want.”
McLeod said the idea that AI can resolve loneliness and create “emotional connections” is dangerous.
“I think it's really playing on fire,” he told Patel. The Lonely epidemic, as he called it, is exacerbated by the screens and the internet, bringing “mental health issues.”
Meta did not respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.
AI meets hinge
Despite his attitude towards chatbots, despite imitating emotions, McLeod said there are useful ways to incorporate AI into hinge technology.
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He looks at two main areas where AI can improve the dating experience.
“It's going to be much closer to my personal work experience with matchmaking services,” he said from one approach. This allows users to talk more directly about what they are looking for in their partners to create a curated list of the most compatible matches.
He also considers the possibility that an AI dating coach will help people overcome hurdles, such as preparing for their first date or creating a dating profile. For example, Hinge has a trained model that provides feedback on user responses to prompts displayed in profiles, he said.
“We can give people those nudges, so they can write a good prompt to choose a good photo,” McLeod said.
