The AI baby boom is here. But can ChatGPT really raise a child?

Sam Altman is “extremely kid-pilled.”

The OpenAI CEO announced the birth of his son in February. Since then, Altman has employed his own product, ChatGPT, to answer parenting questions. “Those first few weeks were every question, constantly. Now I ask it about developmental stages more,” he said on OpenAI’s in-house podcast.

Altman isn’t alone on this front. In fact, his experience reflects a growing trend: New parents are increasingly turning to AI to help navigate childcare questions. According to a 2024 study, 52.7% of parents explicitly used ChatGPT for parenting strategies. Altman is among these parents—and he acknowledges a personal dependence. “Clearly people have been able to take care of babies without ChatGPT for a long time,” he said on the podcast. “I don’t know how I would’ve done that.” 

But could there be such a thing as too much advice?

AI for every stage of parenting

For more targeted advice, some turn to specialized chatbots. Becky Kennedy, an influential clinical psychologist and parenting guru known as “Dr. Becky,” created the popular Good Inside app. There, parents can ask questions to a chatbot trained on Kennedy’s own writing and videos. Oath Care rode the initial AI boom by launching its specialized ParentGPT product, but the company shut down last year.

AI-powered pregnancy apps are also popular. Soula is a 24/7 AI doula, which feeds on data to help advise users on pregnancy and postpartum concerns. The app has raised $750,000 and is backed by the former vice president of fertility and period tracker Flo Health. Glow, which runs a family of apps that includes a popular ovulation tracker, has introduced AI data processing to its prenatal and postpartum apps.

There’s also a world of extensive and expensive childcare gadgets. Tech-forward parents can get their hands on a $400 Nanit baby monitor, which tracks, logs, and flags a baby’s movements using AI. For $1,500, new parents can purchase an AI-powered crib. There’s even a $2,500 self-driving and self-rocking stroller.

How much parenting advice is too much? 

AI offers broad swaths of easily accessible information. But sending parents into information overload can be dangerous. While few studies exist on the new era of AI-powered parenting, researchers have consistently studied the effects of easy internet access on childcare.

According to a 2023 study, parents who feel less confident and more overloaded tend to increase their online searching for parenting advice, which can further erode their sense of efficacy over time. The study also found that information overload is linked with greater queries, meaning that parents who surf the web will keep surfing.

Robyn Koslowitz, a child psychologist and author of Post-Traumatic Parenting: Break the Cycle and Become the Parent You Always Wanted to Be, has noticed a technological shift. Patients used to visit her with self-diagnosed advice from “Dr. Google.” Now, she says, they reference “Dr. ChatGPT.” The data aligns with Koslowitz’s experience: A 2024 study from the Kansas Life Span Institute found that many parents trust ChatGPT more than their healthcare providers.

“Parents have a tremendous amount of self-doubt nowadays,” Koslowitz tells Fast Company. “Sometimes ChatGPT, or any other chatbot, steps in to take away decision-making. But the only way we learn discernment, and we learn to figure it out, is if we rely on our own judgment.”

New York Times journalist Amanda Hess has seen up close the dangers of over-technologizing childcare. Her new book, Second Life: Having a Child in the Digital Age, tracks her uses of pregnancy tech like fertility apps and online support groups. She worries about AI’s impact, too.

“There’s something lost when we turn too quickly to technologies like chatbots to troubleshoot our kids,” Hess writes in an email to Fast Company. “There are bonds that can be built by asking friends and neighbors and relatives for help, human connections that will continue to support our kids as they make their way through life.”

In other words, it takes a village—not just a chatbot.

https://www.fastcompany.com/91356694/the-ai-baby-boom-is-here-but-can-chatgpt-really-raise-a-child?partner=rss&utm_source=rss&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=rss+fastcompany&utm_content=rss