Sam Altman's concept of "cool" seems to differ from the majority.
In his X profile, he says, for instance, that "AI is cool i guess," a statement with which many would likely disagree. He also fails to capitalize "i," which some think is cool, but not all.
And when the OpenAI CEO shared what he called a "cool use case" for ChatGPT on X this week, the reception was not cool. It was cold.
"connect your family calendars and explain your kids' interests," he wrote, in lowercase, adding that it was not his own idea but one he heard. "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."
The idea reflects a broader movement to use AI to ease the burdens of parenting — one that Altman has been promoting for close to a year now. Altman, who welcomed a son with his husband, Oliver Mulherin, in 2025, has said ChatGPT was indispensable during his first months as a father.
For many, however, the idea of inserting AI into every moment of every day, and especially in those spent with children, didn't go over all that well. "What if you just talked to your children," Alex Hirsch, an animator who created the Disney kids show "Gravity Falls," wrote in response to Altman's suggestion, which got 10 times the number of likes.
Hundreds of X users piled on. Another user said, "using AI in place of real human connection is the worst possible use case for it."
That's a view OpenAI President Greg Brockman might be coming around to, too. In his own eyebrow-raising X post on Saturday, he said that his employees don't like it when ChatGPT asks them for things, even if they'd be "perfectly happy doing the same work" if a coworker asked.
"reinforces how much people care about human relationships and helping each other, and want AI to give time back — or enhance time together — rather than become a layer separating people," he wrote, in lowercase.
For parents who advocate using AI to help them parent, more time is exactly what they say they need. Hally Peck, a mother of two, told Business Insider that** **she uses an AI agent to manage work calendars, school schedules, activities, birthdays, and childcare logistics. "I have two kids, and my husband also works full-time," she said. "We're both in very demanding jobs, which means time is our most critical resource."
Altman told Jimmy Fallon that he couldn't imagine "figuring out how to raise a newborn without ChatGPT," which he said he used for questions about developmental milestones and everyday childcare.
He has also said his children will grow up "vastly more capable" because they will learn to use AI, even though they will "never be smarter than AI."
Alexandr Wang, the 29-year-old Meta AI executive and Scale AI founder, has shared an even more extreme vision of AI parenting. He's said he may wait to have children until brain-computer interfaces such as Neuralink become sufficiently advanced. He said he believes that children's neuroplasticity allows them to adapt to technology early and will eventually think alongside superintelligent systems.