Commentary: Can AI improve my parenting? Maybe, but not in the way Sam Altman thinks

August 10, 2026 - 08:32

There is real potential for artificial intelligence to assist in the messy, exhausting business of raising children. But the recent advice from OpenAI's Sam Altman about using ChatGPT for parenting misses the mark entirely, according to Financial Times columnist Robert Shrimsley.

The useful applications are practical and grounded. AI can help draft a polite but firm email to a teacher about a bullying incident. It can generate a week's worth of healthy lunchbox ideas that a picky eater might actually accept. It can translate a teenager's vague "something happened at school" into a list of gentle follow-up questions. It can even help a sleep-deprived parent compose a birthday party invitation that does not sound like a ransom note.

These are tasks where clarity, speed, and a bit of creative structure genuinely help. The technology acts like a tireless, non-judgmental assistant who never gets bored of your problems.

Altman's vision, however, seems to be something else entirely. He has floated the idea of using chatbots as a kind of parenting oracle, a source of wisdom for big decisions or a stand-in for difficult conversations. That is where the trouble starts.

A machine cannot know the specific look in your child's eye when they are hiding something. It cannot feel the weight of a hug after a bad day. It cannot tell the difference between a tantrum born of hunger and one born of genuine distress. Outsourcing those judgments to a language model is not just lazy; it is a way of avoiding the very human work that parenting demands.

The real promise of AI in this domain is not to replace parental instinct but to clear the clutter around it. Use it to handle the administrative noise, the repetitive planning, and the awkward phrasing. Save your own energy for the moments that actually matter: the listening, the comforting, and the quiet presence that no algorithm can replicate. That is the version of AI-assisted parenting worth trying. The other version is just a fancy way to avoid doing the job.