Key Takeaways
- OpenAI CEO Sam Altman stated he doesn’t want his infant son’s best friend to be an AI bot.
- He believes children require significantly more protection than adults when interacting with AI tools.
- Altman noted that people are increasingly forming personal relationships with AI, a trend he finds not entirely negative but one that needs careful observation.
- During a Senate testimony, he highlighted the privacy challenges posed by AI systems that will deeply learn about users over time.
Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, has clear views on AI and childhood: he doesn’t envision an AI bot as his infant son’s best friend. He shared this sentiment during a Senate testimony on Thursday.
The question about AI companionship for his child came from Senator Bernie Moreno. It was part of a wider conversation about protecting children as AI becomes more integrated into our lives and handles more personal information, according to Business Insider.
Altman, who recently became a father, acknowledged that AI systems will “get to know you over the course of your life so well.” This, he said, “presents a new challenge and level of importance for how we think about privacy in the world of AI.”
He observed that people are already forming deeply personal connections with AI, calling it a “newer thing in recent months.” While he doesn’t think this is “all bad,” Altman stressed the need to “understand it and watch it very carefully.”
A key point for Altman is the distinction between adult and child users. He advocated for greater flexibility for adults using AI, but insisted that children need “a much higher level of protection.”
However, he also pointed out a persistent online challenge: verifying a user’s age. “If we could draw a line and if we knew for sure when a user was a child or an adult, we would allow adults to be much more permissive and we’d have tighter rules for children,” he explained.
This isn’t the first time Altman has discussed raising a child alongside rapidly advancing AI. He previously noted that “children in the future will only know a world with AI in it.”
On a personal note, Altman shared that his son, who was born prematurely, is “doing well.” He described fatherhood as “the most amazing thing ever,” and recently mentioned his son learning to eat independently was a prouder moment than his work at OpenAI.
