More than three years after its launch, ChatGPT brought generative AI into the mainstream, OpenAI is expanding its focus not just to individual users but to families.
OpenAI is there hiring a dedicated product manager in San Francisco tasked with creating experiences for families, caregivers and seniors within its products. According to the job posting, the position requires products that build experience for parents and families and other trust-sensitive consumer experiences.
The hiring comes as ChatGPT’s audience expands 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 the second quarter 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 parent smartphone users used ChatGPT this quarter, up from 16% a year earlier, the company estimates.
OpenAI did not respond to requests for comment on the job posting.
The dedicated product role focused on families signals that OpenAI is starting to think of its products less as tools for individual productivity and more as technology aimed at households, said Ben Bajarin, chief executive of consultancy Imaginative Strategies.
“This is similar to the path that Google, Apple and Meta ultimately took as their platforms became embedded in everyday life, but AI ups the ante because the assistant doesn’t just mediate content or devices,” he told TechCrunch.
This change also brings novel challenges in terms of trust and security. Stephen Balkam, chief executive of the Family Online Safety Institute, said the hiring reflects both the maturation of OpenAI and the growing recognition that AI products used by children and teenagers require different safeguards than those intended for adults.
“I see it as security through redesign,” Balkam told TechCrunch. “You take the initial product or service that was released… not necessarily with kids in mind… so there’s a very necessary backlash and backlash.”
The comments come from novel research released this week by the Family Online Safety Institute found that parents underestimate how often their children utilize generative AI. While 27% of U.S. parents said their child used generative AI in the past week, according to a survey of more than 4,000 families in the United States and Australia, 38% of children said they did so on their own.
Balkam told TechCrunch that AI companies should build products differently for younger users, with stronger content controls, age-appropriate experiences, parental supervision and reminders that let users know they are interacting with AI rather than a human.
The hiring also comes amid growing scrutiny of how AI companies protect younger users. OpenAI has faced multiple lawsuits from the site parents accuse this ChatGPT contributed to the damage incurred by their children, including cases involving suicide.
Balkam said artificial intelligence companies have a chance to avoid the mistakes made by social media platforms, which treated children similarly to adults for years before adding stronger safeguards in the face of growing public pressure and regulatory scrutiny.
The hiring also fits into OpenAI’s broader efforts around families. During a recent workshop organized with the San Antonio Spurs Community Impact and Positive Coaching Alliance, the company he said its aim was to explore the role of artificial intelligence in youth learning, coaching and engagement.
That said, demographic changes are not unique to ChatGPT, although OpenAI’s audience is changing in some respects.
Sensor Tower estimates that users aged 25 to 34 make up 40% of the global audience for Anthropic’s Claude and Google’s Gemini, which equates to ChatGPT, compared to 33% for Microsoft’s Copilot. Copilot, however, skews older users, with 20% of users aged 45 and over, compared to 14% for Claude, 12% for Gemini, and 11% for ChatGPT.
While ChatGPT remains relatively underpenetrated among older users, it is adding them faster than competitors. According to Sensor Tower, the share of users aged 45 and over increased by three percentage points year-over-year in the second quarter, compared with a two-point raise for Copilot and a decline for Claude and Gemini.
Among U.S. smartphone users who are parents, Gemini had the broadest reach at 32% in the second quarter, followed by ChatGPT at 24%, Claude at 4% and Copilot at 2%.
For Bajarin, OpenAI’s decision to hire a family-focused product manager signals where consumer AI is heading. As AI becomes a shared technology across generations, he expects companies to introduce family plans, child and teen profiles, caregiver tools, shared home storage, AI learning and stronger security controls.