The rise of artificial intelligence companies, like OpenAI, has led to more use cases for consumers and companies. When it comes to AI replacing parents, it’s not quite there yet, as OpenAI co-founder and CEO Sam Altman quickly learned on social media.
Sam Altman’s Parenting Advice
Altman is the father of a child born via surrogacy in February 2025. While Altman and his husband Oliver Mulherin don’t have school-aged children yet, the OpenAI co-founder offered a new way to enjoy the trip of taking kids to school as part of the morning commute.
"Cool use of ChatGPT work I heard last night: connect your family calendars and explain your kids’ interests. Every morning for the drive to school, have it make a podcast that talks about one kid’s soccer game that afternoon, one kid’s upcoming birthday, some news, etc." Altman tweeted.
The advice quickly went viral on social media and prompted many negative responses to the parenting advice. Among the most viewed responses was one from animator Alex Hirsch, creator of "Gravity Falls."
"What if you just talked to your children?" Hirsch said in a response to Altman’s post.
Hirsch’s response has more reposts and likes than the initial post from Altman and has been viewed millions of times on social media platform X.
Based on the responses and the love of Hirsch’s suggestion, parents don’t love the idea of making a podcast personalized for their kids for the quick morning commute. Instead, this time can sometimes be a chance to talk about upcoming sports and extracurricular events, to remind kids of appointments, or to discuss other items.
Altman’s Love of ChatGPT for Parenting
This isn’t the first time Altman has suggested using ChatGPT for parenting, and it likely won’t be his last.
The AI company has a job listing for a product manager with experience building consumer experiences for parents and families, according to a report from TechCrunch.
Some may also remember that Altman went viral in December during an appearance on "The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon." Host Jimmy Fallon asked Altman if he uses ChatGPT to help raise his baby.
"I feel kinda bad about it," Altman said, admitting to using ChatGPT.
Altman said he asks ChatGPT questions about his son.
One example Altman gave was meeting another father and hearing that this dad’s six-month-old son had already started crawling, while Altman’s had not. That prompted Altman to go to the bathroom and ask ChatGPT questions about when the average child crawls and if his son is behind.
The OpenAI CEO said he “got a great answer back” and was told that it was normal for his son not to be crawling yet.
“I cannot imagine figuring out how to raise a newborn without ChatGPT. Clearly, people did it for a long time, no problem.”
The comment got many laughs from Fallon and the audience.
“They did,” Fallon responded.
Altman acknowledged that “clearly it was possible” to raise children without ChatGPT.
More Perfect Untion shared a clip on X and got over 15 million views. Among the most-viewed responses by users about Altman’s parenting method are:
“If you cannot raise your child without AI, maybe you shouldn’t have reproduced in the first place.”
“Cheese salesman: I cannot imagine figuring out what to eat without cheese.”
A post on Parents.com highlights that a child is the best indicator of a child’s development and that health care providers are the best experts.
While Altman is free to parent his child how he sees fit, including using ChatGPT as much as possible, the CEO’s attempts to influence other parents have so far fallen flat.
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