In a new interview, Vance shared his concerns with online dating and what it means for families
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NEED TO KNOW
- Vice President J.D. Vance spoke with The New York Times about the growth and consequences of artificial intelligence in a May 21 interview.
- During the conversation, he said he’s more concerned with technology’s impact on dating
- He claimed that technology has made it more difficult for people to communicate with each other, and attributes that to “destructive” dating apps
Vice President J.D. Vance is taking a stand against dating apps.
On Wednesday, May 21, the politician discussed artificial intelligence in an interview with The New York Times. Although Vance, 40, said he recognizes that there are concerns with the technology and its economic impact, he said he is more concerned about A.I.’s effect on non-economic factors, including dating.
“If you look at basic dating behavior among young people — and I think a lot of this is that the dating apps are probably more destructive than we fully appreciate,” Vance said. “I think part of it is technology has just for some reason made it harder for young men and young women to communicate with each other in the same way.”
“Our young men and women just aren’t dating, and if they’re not dating, they’re not getting married, they’re not starting families.”
Vance has previously championed “pronatalism,” or the promotion of reproduction. During the 2024 campaign trail, he said he wanted “more babies in the United States of America” and more “beautiful young men and women” to raise them, The New York Times reported in April 2025.
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“There’s a level of isolation, I think, mediated through technology, that technology can be a bit of a salve. It can be a bit of a Band-Aid. Maybe it makes you feel less lonely, even when you are lonely. But this is where I think AI could be profoundly dark and negative,” Vance also said in his interview with the Times on Wednesday.
“But what I do really worry about is does it mean that there are millions of American teenagers talking to chatbots who don’t have their best interests at heart?” he continued.
“Or even if they do have their best interests at heart, they start to develop a relationship, they start to expect a chatbot that’s trying to give a dopamine rush, and, you know, compared to a chatbot, a normal human interaction is not going to be as satisfying, because human beings have wants and needs.”
Vance also shared that he brought up his concerns about online dating to Pope Leo XIV when he was in Rome for the new pope’s inaugural mass on Sunday, May 18.
