Remember when dating apps were just digital cocktail napkins where you scribbled, “U up?” and hoped for the best?

Well, the industry’s latest crush is artificial intelligence, and Hinge CEO Justin McLeod just told The Verge it might burn the house down. In his own words, turning chatbots into romantic partners is “playing with fire.” 

Hinge CEO Justin McLeod says dating AI chatbots is ‘playing with fire’
The head of Hinge compares AI companionship to junk food and says we need to prioritize human connection.
The VergeNilay Patel

McLeod’s worry isn’t that the bots will steal our jobs - it’s that they’ll steal our weekends. He compares AI companionship to junk food: sugary, instantly gratifying, and guaranteed to leave you emotionally bloated an hour later.

Loneliness, he notes, is already an epidemic; young people now spend 70 percent less time with friends IRL than they did in 2000. Swapping humans for holograms? That’s basically swapping veggies for marshmallow Peeps. 

“But Justin,” you ask, “doesn’t Hinge use AI?” Sure - in the same way your grandmother uses Zoom. Hinge’s algorithms quietly nudge you to ditch your one-word bio, pick better photos, and rethink that 2 a.m. “u up?” - a safety feature lovingly called “Are You Sure?”

What Hinge doesn’t do is unleash full-blown virtual girlfriends.

No GPT-Samantha whispers sweet nothings while you Netflix-and-chill with your phone. Hinge’s stance: AI should coach you off the couch, not cuddle you on it.

This ethic bumps into capitalism in hilarious ways. Hinge is trademarked as “the app designed to be deleted,” which is a bit like a gym promising you’ll cancel your membership once you’re hot. Investors still want rent money, so Hinge is eyeing new payment routes (cheerio, App Store tax!) while somehow encouraging you to ghost them forever. 

Then there’s the data buffet.

Dating apps know your height, your selfie angles, and that you secretly listen to Celine Dion. McLeod insists those dossiers are guarded like the KFC recipe - but even he admits the next political administration could come sniffing around. When your romantic preferences rank alongside nuclear codes on the “sensitive info” scale, you start cheering for fewer swipes and more coffee shop meet-cutes. 

My Perspective - Justin's Right

As a reformed entrepreneur who spent 22+ years running one of Europe's largest online dating businesses, I’m convinced AI-everywhere is dating’s big wrong turn. Outsourcing charm to a large language model doesn’t just kill the vibe; it de-humanises the whole adventure.

People fall in love with crooked smiles, awkward pauses, and the way someone mispronounces “gnocchi” - not with perfectly scripted banter, profiles and polished social media accounts.

That’s why offline events and online speed-dating (video on, no filters, no time to consult ChatGPT) are the next gold rush.

Users can’t hide behind air-brushed photos or Frankenstein’d bios. They have to show up - as themselves, blemishes and all.

And guess what? That vulnerability is exactly what sparks connection.