OpenAI is expanding its strategic focus beyond individual users to encompass families, a significant shift occurring over three years after ChatGPT's introduction popularized generative AI.
To support this expansion, OpenAI is actively recruiting a specialized product manager in San Francisco. This role is tasked with developing product experiences tailored for families, caregivers, and older adults, specifically requiring expertise in creating products for parents and families, alongside other consumer experiences demanding high levels of trust, as detailed in the job advertisement.
This hiring initiative coincides with a discernible diversification in ChatGPT's user base, extending beyond its initial younger demographic. Exclusive Sensor Tower data provided to TechCrunch indicates that the global proportion of ChatGPT users aged 35 and above increased to 31% in Q2, up from 26% the previous year. Concurrently, the segment of users aged 18 to 24 decreased from 34% to 29%. Furthermore, in the U.S., approximately one in four smartphone users who are parents engaged with ChatGPT during the quarter, a notable rise from 16% a year prior, according to the firm's estimations.
OpenAI did not provide a comment when approached regarding the specifics of this job posting.
Ben Bajarin, CEO of technology consultancy Creative Strategies, interprets this dedicated product role for families as a clear indication that OpenAI is shifting its perception of its offerings from mere individual productivity tools to technologies integrated within household environments.
"This mirrors the trajectory taken by Google, Apple, and Meta as their platforms became integral to daily life," Bajarin informed TechCrunch, "but AI elevates the complexity because the assistant's role extends beyond simply mediating content or devices."
This strategic pivot also introduces novel challenges concerning trust and safety. Stephen Balkam, Chief Executive of the Family Online Safety Institute, commented that this hiring reflects both OpenAI's ongoing maturation and an increasing awareness that AI products intended for children and teenagers necessitate distinct protective measures compared to those developed for adult users.
"I view this as safety achieved through redesign," Balkam explained to TechCrunch. "You are taking the initial product or service that was launched... without a primary focus on children... making this a highly necessary reaction and response."
These observations emerge alongside new research released this week by the Family Online Safety Institute, which revealed that parents tend to underestimate their children's engagement with generative AI. A survey of over 4,000 families across the United States and Australia indicated that while 27% of U.S. parents believed their child had used generative AI in the previous week, 38% of children confirmed they had.
Balkam emphasized to TechCrunch that AI companies ought to design products specifically for younger users, incorporating more robust content controls, age-appropriate experiences, parental supervision, and clear prompts to remind users they are interacting with an AI, not a human.
This hiring also takes place amidst increasing scrutiny regarding how AI companies safeguard younger users. OpenAI, in particular, has been subject to several lawsuits from parents who claim ChatGPT played a role in harm experienced by their children, including instances related to suicide.
Addressing some of these concerns, OpenAI has implemented a range of safety features over the past year. These include parental controls for teenage accounts, the redirection of sensitive conversations to specialized reasoning models equipped to better manage indicators of distress, and the recent introduction of an optional "Trusted Contact" feature capable of notifying a family member or caregiver in situations involving potential self-harm.
Balkam suggested that AI companies possess a crucial opportunity to learn from and circumvent the errors made by social media platforms, which historically treated children similarly to adults for many years before implementing more stringent safeguards under increasing public and regulatory pressure.
Furthermore, this hiring aligns with OpenAI's wider initiatives focused on families. The company recently stated its intention to explore AI's potential role in learning, coaching, and youth engagement during a workshop co-organized with the San Antonio Spurs Community Impact organization and the Positive Coaching Alliance.
It is important to note, however, that while OpenAI's audience is evolving in specific ways, this demographic shift is not exclusive to ChatGPT.
Sensor Tower data estimates that the 25-to-34 age group constitutes 40% of the global app audience for Anthropic's Claude and Google's Gemini, mirroring ChatGPT's figures, whereas Microsoft's Copilot sees this group at 33%. Notably, Copilot generally caters to an older demographic, with 20% of its users being 45 years or older, in contrast to 14% for Claude, 12% for Gemini, and 11% for ChatGPT.
Despite ChatGPT's relatively lower penetration among older users, it is acquiring this demographic at a quicker pace than its competitors. Sensor Tower reports that the proportion of users aged 45 and above for ChatGPT increased by three percentage points year-over-year in the second quarter, while Copilot saw a two-point rise, and both Claude and Gemini experienced declines in this segment.
Among U.S. smartphone users who are parents, Gemini achieved the broadest reach in Q2 at 32%, with ChatGPT following at 24%, Claude at 4%, and Copilot at 2%.
Bajarin views OpenAI's decision to recruit a product manager dedicated to families as a significant indicator of the future direction for consumer AI. As AI transitions into a technology utilized across various generations, he anticipates that companies will introduce features such as family plans, distinct profiles for children and teenagers, tools for caregivers, shared household memory capabilities, AI tutoring, and enhanced safety controls.
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