Sam Altman promotes ChatGPT Work as a parenting assistant, draws criticism for replacing conversations with children

OpenAI head Sam Altman described on X on Friday what he called a “cool use case” for the new ChatGPT Work tool: according to him, parents can connect their family calendars and describe their children’s interests, and the tool will then create a podcast for them every morning on the way to school – for example, about one child’s afternoon football match, another’s upcoming birthday, and current news. The post prompted a wave of sarcastic responses, including from Gravity Falls creator Alex Hirsch, who asked: “What if you just talked to your kids?” While Altman’s post had about 300 shares and 9 600 likes as of Saturday morning, Hirsch’s reply received around 9 000 shares and 122 000 likes.

Altman had previously spoken in similar terms about the role of ChatGPT in parenting – on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, he said he could not imagine managing newborn care without ChatGPT, while also acknowledging that people had been doing it for a long time without it. A similar example had previously come from Microsoft head Satya Nadella, who said he had stopped listening to his favorite podcasts during his morning drive and instead asks an AI chatbot about their content.

OpenAI also recently posted a job opening for a product manager with experience building products that families trust. The company currently faces several lawsuits from parents and families who claim that ChatGPT contributed to delusions and the suicides of their loved ones. OpenAI said in response that it is “continuously improving how its models respond in sensitive interactions.”