OpenAI shifts focus to families as ChatGPT user base ages

shifts focus to families as ChatGPT user base ages">

More than three years after ChatGPT's launch brought generative AI into the mainstream, OpenAI is broadening its focus beyond individual users to families. OpenAI is hiring a dedicated product manager in San Francisco to build experiences for families, caregivers, and older adults across its products. The role calls for experience building products for parents and families, and other trust-sensitive consumer experiences, according to the job posting.

The hiring comes as ChatGPT's audience continues to broaden beyond younger users. According to Sensor Tower estimates shared exclusively with TechCrunch, the share of ChatGPT users aged 35 and older globally rose to 31% in Q2 from 26% a year earlier, while the share of users aged 18 to 24 fell to 29% from 34%. In the U.S., nearly one in four smartphone users who are parents used ChatGPT during the quarter, up from 16% a year earlier, the firm estimates.

OpenAI did not respond to requests for comment about the job posting. A dedicated product role focused on families signals that OpenAI is beginning to think about its products less as tools for individual productivity and more as technology designed for households, said Ben Bajarin, chief executive of technology consultancy Creative Strategies. "This is similar to the path Google, Apple, and Meta eventually followed as their platforms became embedded in everyday life, but AI raises the stakes because the assistant is not just mediating content or devices," he told TechCrunch.

That shift also brings new trust and safety challenges. Stephen Balkam, chief executive of the Family Online Safety Institute, said the hiring reflects both the maturation of OpenAI and a growing recognition that AI products used by children and teenagers require different safeguards than those designed for adults. "I see this as safety by redesign," Balkam told TechCrunch.

"You take the initial product or service that was released… not really with kids in mind… so this is a much-needed reaction and response." The comments come as new research published this week by the Family Online Safety Institute found that parents are underestimating how often their children use generative AI. While 27% of U.S. parents said their child had used generative AI in the past week, 38% of children reported doing so themselves, according to the survey of more than 4,000 families in the United States and Australia.

Balkam told TechCrunch that AI companies should build products differently for younger users, with stronger content controls, age-appropriate experiences, parental oversight, and reminders to inform users that they are interacting with an AI — and not a human. The hiring also comes amid growing scrutiny of how AI companies protect younger users. OpenAI has faced multiple lawsuits from parents alleging that ChatGPT contributed to harm suffered by their children, including in cases involving suicide.