Sam Altman’s latest piece of parenting advice just dropped, and people are roasting him for it. The 41-year-old CEO of OpenAI seemed to genuinely think he was sharing a helpful tip with fellow parents when he posted about one way in which they can use ChatGPT to connect with and entertain their children.
But a lot of critics found the tip embarrassing and actually kind of scary.
He suggested using ChatGPT to create a podcast for children.
To his critics, the advice sounded so out of touch and “disconnected” that they almost felt sorry for him. On July 31, Sam took to X to share the tip that he claimed he heard from someone else. He tried to say that ChatGPT can be used to entertain children on the way to school. (Sam is a parent, but he just welcomed his son in February 2025).
“Cool use case of ChatGPT work i heard last night: connect your family calendars and explain your kids’ interests,” he advised in the post shared with his 5.7 million followers. “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 post has garnered 14.2 million views, but not because people appreciated Sam’s parenting advice.
A lot of critics actually mocked him and his parenting in response.
What if you just talked to your children
— Alex Hirsch (@_AlexHirsch) July 31, 2026
Those who were skeptical of this supposed parenting hack could think of other ways to entertain kids on the way to school, like perhaps by… talking to them? Their advice for Sam was actually pretty simple: “Or the parents could just have a conversation with the kids about those things,” someone suggested in the comments. Sam received lots of comments like this one, including one that read, “Even cooler would be the dad or mom just talking to their kids in real life.” Pretty radical idea, right?
Besides, a lot of parents pointed out that they really cherish the time they spend with their kids on the way to school. They couldn’t comprehend why they would want to replace that quality time with an AI podcast. “Conversations with your children in the car are priceless,” a parent responded. “Keep them away from phones as long as possible!”
There’s really no problem to solve here because spending time with loved ones isn’t a waste of time or something that needs to be outsourced. “What if I… actually enjoy talking to my family about their lives and interests?” someone else questioned.
People found Sam’s idea pretty “dystopian,” actually. “Nothing like AI to outsource knowing your own kids,” another person wrote.
People really questioned the point of this.
Telling my child to stop talking because I’m listening to the AI podcast about their soccer game and upcoming birthday. https://t.co/8mnkhsbhZs
— Jathan Sadowski (@jathansadowski) August 1, 2026
The fact that Sam suggested using AI to replace moments of genuine human connection rubbed people the wrong way and made them think that he’s basically trying to turn everyone into robots.
“It’s wild how disconnected these tech people are from normal human behavior,” someone commented. Others thought of how the kids might feel: “yeah my dad AI generates podcasts about my upcoming birthday instead of talking to me while we drive to school.” Oof.
It’s not the first time Sam has talked about using ChatGPT for parenting support.
instead of being a parent who actually talks to their kids why not just have chatgpt do it https://t.co/B0JXphiE6z
— Joshua Topolsky (@joshuatopolsky) July 31, 2026
And not the first time people have called him out for it, either. Last year, Sam admitted that he used ChatGPT for parenting advice. He also questioned how people managed to raise children before ChatGPT existed, which sparked a lot of backlash online.
“I cannot imagine having gone through figuring out how to raise a newborn without ChatGPT,” Sam said at the time.
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