Altman’s recommendation sparks debate about AI in parenting

OpenAI may have an AI agent that promises to produce “share-ready work,” but the company’s CEO went public with an arguably unshare-ready take on what to do with it.On Friday, Altman posted on X that “a cool use case” for the company’s ChatGPT Work agent is to “connect your family calendars and explain your kids’ interests” and then “have it make a podcast that talks about one kid’s soccer game that afternoon, one kid’s upcoming birthday, some news, etc.” every day on the drive to school.He didn’t exactly get ratioed…but several snarky replies got way more likes than the original post. One of the more modulated criticisms said: “using AI in place of real human connection is the worst possible use case for it.”But AI execs want busy parents’ bucksAnd some use cases for AI for family management are gaining more traction than others. In a recent feature, the New Yorker overviewed the myriad ways AI is trying to monetize relief from “the cognitive load of domestic admin”:AI-enabled family support apps include Ollie, Cozi, and Ava, which can pull data from emails and calendars to send family text messages about important daily activities, remember birthdays, manage shareable lists, and flag deadlines for registration and bills.AI-enhanced smart calendars, like Skylight and Cozyla, create shared visuals for all family members to keep them on track, and can also serve as reward trackers and photo albums.Allison Stern, the founder of a VC firm focused on mothers as consumers, recently wrote for Fortune that moms “need outcomes, not interfaces.” When AI companies can really solve problems, she argues, they gain entrée into the market of 85 million American moms.Zoom out: Stern noted that “mothers make 85% of household purchases and control roughly $2.4 trillion in annual consumer spending in the United States.” A recent market analysis for AI in childcare and parenting predicted that the segment would be worth almost $42 billion by 2035.—HVL