When OpenAI CEO Sam Altman appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, he may have been expecting some friendly laughs and soft questions about the future of AI. But one offhand comment triggered a wave of online backlash — and it had nothing to do with model weights, GPU clusters or AGI.
It was about parenting.
“I cannot imagine having gone through figuring out how to raise a newborn without ChatGPT,” Altman said during the interview, explaining how the chatbot helped him manage new-parent anxiety when his child wasn’t crawling by six months. According to Altman, ChatGPT calmly reassured him everything was fine.
To some, it sounded like a charming anecdote about AI as a helpful assistant. But to many online, it sounded more like a frightening dystopian shift.
'We’re cooked as a society'
Over on Reddit,Altman’s quote quickly landed in the crosshairs of r/Fauxmoi, a pop culture commentary community that rarely pulls punches. A top post titled “We’re cooked as a society” summed up the mood. The comment section did the rest.
“Why would you announce yourself to be such a huge loser like dis… read a BOOK.”
“If you need AI to tell you how to raise a kid you probably shouldn't be having kids.”
“This makes me feel like we’re living in a parody of real life.”
“We need human connection more than ever, right now.”
Across social media, many echoed the same concern: parenting is fundamentally a human experience. It requires emotional presence, not algorithmic reassurance. Altman’s framing, even if well-meaning, felt hollow to those of us who’ve relied on family, pediatricians or just intuition to raise kids long before AI ever entered the chat.
What the backlash reveals
Altman’s comment might have been a casual nod to ChatGPT’s convenience, but it landed at the intersection of two cultural pressure points:
- Tech overreach into daily life
- The erosion of human connection in parenting and relationships
The backlash reveals a growing skepticism about tech leaders suggesting AI can (or should) replace hard-earned human wisdom. To many, turning to ChatGPT for developmental milestones feels less like innovation — and more like outsourcing parenting.
The reaction suggests a line in the sand. Tools are fine. But when a billionaire technologist casually says he couldn’t imagine raising a child without AI, it sparks real fear that this is the direction we’re all being nudged toward.
As a mom of three and a ChatGPT power user, I would have personally turned to a pediatrician for a concern like Altman's, not ChatGPT.
The backlash speaks to AI fatigue. AI is now in everything: your phone, your browser, your home. So when it starts showing up in baby advice, something parents have handled on their own for hundreds of thousands of years, for many, that crosses a line.
To be fair, plenty of new parents do Google symptoms, search Reddit for tips, or scan WebMD in the middle of the night. Altman’s use of ChatGPT isn’t dramatically different — it’s just newer, and he’s the CEO of the product.
Still, the reaction suggests a line in the sand. Tools are fine. But when a billionaire technologist casually says he couldn’t imagine raising a child without AI, it sparks real fear that this is the direction we’re all being nudged toward: hyper-reliance on bots over community, intuition, or expertise.
The takeaway
Sam Altman is no stranger to controversy. And, the comment wasn’t the most controversial thing a tech CEO has said this year — not by a long shot. But the reaction it triggered speaks volumes about where we are as a culture.
People are fascinated by AI. But they don’t want it taking over their most human roles — parenting, caregiving, connecting.
The internet heard Altman say, “I couldn’t imagine parenting without ChatGPT.”
And it responded: “I couldn’t imagine parenting with it.”
What do you think about Sam Altman's take on parenting? Share your thoughts in the comments.
More from Tom's Guide
- GPT-5.2 is around the corner — but it might not be enough to take on Anthropic and Gemini
- I tested ChatGPT vs Claude vs Gemini with 7 real high-stakes situations — here’s the winner
- The ‘no prompt’ rule makes ChatGPT give expert-level writing advice — here’s how it works
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