OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says Gen Z and millennials are using ChatGPT like a ‘life adviser'
Altman said young people use ChatGPT similar to how they’d use an operating system. They have complex ways to set it up and connect it to files and have fairly complex prompts memorized or saved somewhere.
“I mean, that stuff, I think, is all cool and impressive,” Altman said. “And there’s this other thing where, like, they don’t really make life decisions without asking ChatGPT what they should do.”
Earlier this year, OpenAI published a report saying “more than any other use case, more than any other kind of user, college-aged young adults in the U.S. are embracing ChatGPT, adding that more than one-third of 18-to-24 year olds use ChatGPT.
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 3 | May 13, 2025 10:12 PM
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Younger users are able to do this since ChatGPT has memory of previous conversations the user has had with the AI product. “It has the full context on every person in their life and what they’ve talked about,” Altman said.
Reports show people have started using ChatGPT for anything ranging from relationship advice to business and medical questions. Others use it as a replacement for talk therapy.
Meanwhile, experts in those respective fields are torn on whether it’s safe and advisable to consult ChatGPT for major life decisions. For example, a November 2023 study “highlights the need for caution when using ChatGPT for safety-related information and expert verification, as well as the need for ethical considerations and safeguards to ensure users understand the limitations and receive appropriate advice.” Another study said large language models, like ChatGPT, are “inherently sociopathic,” making it difficult to trust their advice.
by Anonymous | reply 1 | May 13, 2025 9:42 PM
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Who are these people? I’m a millennial and I don’t know anybody who uses ChatGPT to make life decisions.
by Anonymous | reply 2 | May 13, 2025 9:54 PM
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I have been experimenting all spring with using ChatGPT as describe in the article. I too have saved prompts and have trained it in my ways I prefer it to search and to reply to me, and I have complicated prompts. It is revelatory and a mixed bag. It hallucinates a lot unless you whip it to stop And it does have sociopathic tendencies because it is programmed to create amicable interactions with the client gleaning a lot off the client's prompt rather than it's own data. You have to FORCE it to use the data intelligently. It always tries to be "helpful" rather than precise. Precision you must prompt for. Also honesty. It won't tell you it doesn't know unless you force it to admit what it doesn't know.
by Anonymous | reply 3 | May 13, 2025 10:12 PM
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