More than three years after the launch of ChatGPT and its role in spreading generative AI technologies on a wide scale, OpenAI has begun changing its strategy, shifting from focusing on the individual user to targeting entire families.

The company is seeking to hire a product manager in San Francisco to develop tailored experiences for families, parents, caregivers, and seniors across its various products, in a move that reflects a new vision making AI a part of daily life at home, not just a tool for personal productivity.

Expansion of ChatGPT's User Base

This shift comes at a time when ChatGPT is seeing a notable change in its demographic composition, as data from Sensor Tower indicates that the proportion of users aged 35 and older globally rose to 31% in the second quarter of the year, compared to 26% a year earlier.

In contrast, the proportion of users aged 18 to 24 fell from 34% to 29%.

In the United States, estimates indicate that one in four parents uses ChatGPT on smartphones, compared to just 16% during the same period last year.

From a Personal Tool to a Family Platform

Ben Bajarin, CEO of Creative Strategies, believes this step reflects a shift in OpenAI's vision, as it no longer views ChatGPT as an individual tool, but as a technology aimed at all family members.

He explained that companies like Google, Apple, and Meta took a similar path when their platforms became part of daily life, but AI poses greater challenges because it is not limited to displaying content, but interacts with users and provides them with advice and assistance.

Children and Digital Safety

This shift imposes new challenges related to digital safety, especially with the increasing use of AI applications by children and teenagers.

Stephen Balkam, CEO of the Family Online Safety Institute, said that developing products tailored to families is a necessary step to ensure protection suitable for young age groups.

He added that children need stricter controls, including:

- Effective parental controls.

- Age-appropriate user experiences.

- Content control tools.

- Alerts clarifying to the user that they are interacting with AI, not a real person.

Parents Underestimate Their Children's AI Usage

A recent study by the Family Online Safety Institute, covering more than 4,000 families in the United States and Australia, revealed that parents are unaware of the extent of their children's use of generative AI.

While 27% of parents said their children had used these tools in the past week, 38% of children confirmed they had used them.

Legal Pressures and New Measures

This move also comes amid escalating legal scrutiny over how to protect young users, as OpenAI faces several lawsuits filed by parents accusing ChatGPT of contributing to psychological harm experienced by their children, including cases related to suicide.

In response to these concerns, the company launched several features over the past year to enhance safety, including:

- Parental control tools for teen accounts.

- Routing sensitive conversations to AI models better equipped to handle signs of psychological distress.

- A 'Trusted Contact' feature that can alert a family member or caregiver when potential signs of self-harm are detected.

Competition Moving Toward the Family

This shift is not limited to OpenAI alone, as data from Sensor Tower shows that the 25-34 age group accounts for about 40% of users of Claude, Gemini, and ChatGPT apps, while Microsoft Copilot users tend to be older.

Although ChatGPT remains less prevalent among older users compared to some competitors, it is recording the fastest growth within this group, as the proportion of users aged 45 and older rose by three percentage points in one year.

Among parents in the United States, Gemini topped the list with 32% of users, followed by ChatGPT at 24%, then Claude at 4%, and finally Copilot at 2%.

The Future of AI at Home

Experts expect this move to pave the way for launching new features tailored to families, such as family subscriptions, separate accounts for children and teenagers, caregiver tools, shared family memory, and AI-based educational services, in addition to enhancing security and monitoring tools.

This trend indicates that the upcoming competition among AI companies will not be limited to developing the smartest models, but will also include building safe platforms that meet the needs of all family members.

Advertisement material

Advertisement material