Sam Altman says Gen Z uses ChatGPT to make life decisions
Welcome to the ChatGPT generation. Gen Z isn’t just using ChatGPT to finish homework or settle trivia debates — they’re using it to make actual life decisions. From managing relationships to planning career moves, many young users are apparently turning to the AI chatbot as a kind of digital confidant.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman talked about this shift during a talk at Sequoia Capital’s AI Ascent event earlier this month. The interview, published Monday on Sequoia’s YouTube channel, offered a generational snapshot of how people are using ChatGPT — and Gen Z, it seems, is in deepest.
ChatGPT as a Digital Advisor
According to Altman, younger users aren’t just casually chatting with the AI — they’re building intricate workflows around it. “They really do use it like an operating system,” he said. “They have complex ways to set it up to connect it to a bunch of files, and they have fairly complex prompts memorized in their head or in something where they paste in and out.”
Altman noted that older people use ChatGPT as a Google replacement. Maybe people in their 20s and 30s use it like a life advisor. And then, like, people in college use it as an operating system.
In a February report, OpenAI revealed that U.S. college students were its most engaged users — not just in number, but in how thoroughly they were integrating the tool into their daily routines. More than one-third of Americans ages 18-24 reported using ChatGPT, making them the most active age group on the platform.
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/Parents-Teen-Using-AI-03bfcec420044bf8820b5ac30459f16e.jpg)
Teen Usage and Concerns
The trend is moving even younger. A January 2024 survey from Pew Research found that 26% of U.S. teens ages 13-17 used ChatGPT for schoolwork — a significant jump from just 13% in 2023. The numbers point to a generation growing up with AI not just as a tool, but as a kind of ever-present digital advisor. While sophisticated chatbots are relatively new, teen usage is already an area of concern; California lawmakers introduced a bill last year to require AI companies to remind young people that they’re not talking with a human.
In a recent conversation on the Lex Fridman podcast, Altman emphasized the importance of building AI systems that evolve with users over time: “We’re very early in our explorations here, but I think what people want... is a model that gets to know me and gets more useful to me over time.”
