OpenAI’s Sam Altman stated that families can give the ChatGPT Work AI agent access to personal calendars so that it can generate a custom podcast about their children|World Economic Forum|CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
OpenAI launched ChatGPT Work on Thursday, an AI agent designed to automate workspace tasks.
Promoting the new product, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman posted on X that a “cool use case” for ChatGPT Work could be parents connecting their family calendars and share details about children’s interests, then “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’s post was met with widespread ridicule on social media, most notably from animator Alex Hirsch, who replied, “What if you just talked to your children[?]” The clapback quickly overshadowed Altman’s original post—accumulating 18,000 reposts, over 200,000 likes, and 3.1 million plus views.
Despite the backlash, OpenAI and several other tech firms are aggressively targeting the massive family management market.
Apps like Ollie, Cozi, and Ava, along with smart calendars like Skylight and Cozyla, are already gaining traction, helping parents manage household activity by automating daily schedules, sending birthday reminders, managing shareable lists, or providing shared visual spaces that help keep every family member on track, and much more. Many of them already have AI features.
The primary focus for these firms would be moms since they end up doing most of the family planning, including healthcare, education, food, childcare, and finances. According to Fortune, there are 85 million mothers in America who make 85% of household purchases, controlling roughly $2.4 trillion in annual consumer spending.