Sam Altman says how people use ChatGPT reflects their age – and college students are relying on it to make ‘life decisions’

• OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says the way you use AI differs depending on your age
• Speaking at an AI event, Altman explained how different age demographics use ChatGPT in their own way
• Older people use ChatGPT as a Google replacement, while those in their 20s and 30s use it like a life advisor, according to Altman

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says the way users interact with ChatGPT changes depending on the user’s age.

Whether that’s “older people who use ChatGPT as a Google replacement,” or “people in their 20s and 30s who use it like a life advisor,” Altman says the interactions with AI differ depending on when you were born.

Speaking at Sequoia Capital’s AI Ascent event, Altman said that while it was a “gross oversimplification,” real trends are appearing in terms of how individuals use ChatGPT. In the YouTube video, which you can watch below, Altman, most interestingly, says that “people in college use it as an operating system.”

He goes into more detail by explaining how younger individuals interact with ChatGPT and AI as a whole by using it “to connect it to a bunch of files, and they have fairly complex prompts memorized in their head or in something where they paste in and out.”

Altman adds, “There’s this other thing where they don’t really make life decisions without asking ChatGPT what they should do. It has the full context on every person in their life and what they’ve talked about.”

More and more users are indeed turning to ChatGPT for life discussions and therapy, and I’ve even noticed friends and family opting for genuine conversations with the chatbot about major decisions.

Should you use ChatGPT to make life decisions?

Reading the headline to this article, you might be ready to dismiss the whole idea of using AI and ChatGPT as a genuine ‘life tool’. However, there are some real benefits to continuously talking to AI before making a decision. I find ChatGPT to be a good starting point for researching a topic when I’m thinking about smaller life decisions.

For example, thanks to its memory features, ChatGPT can remember all of my discussions related to my hobbies, and give me tips when I need them. For example, I use ChatGPT to help motivate me with my Peloton use, and sometimes I need advice on what program or class to take next.

ChatGPT knows what I’ve used in the past, and what types of Peloton classes I enjoy doing, and helps me to make a decision based on my preferences. This same functionality can be used across a broad range of topics.

I’m a 30-year-old man who barely uses TikTok, so I can’t even imagine how Gen Z interact with ChatGPT. However, I wouldn’t be surprised if Altman is correct, and there are indeed many people out there who no longer make bigger life decisions without the input of AI, which to me sounds a little worrying.

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John-Anthony Disotto is TechRadar’s Senior Writer, AI, bringing you the latest news on, and comprehensive coverage of, tech’s biggest buzzword. An expert on all things Apple, he was previously iMore’s How To Editor, and has a monthly column in MacFormat. John-Anthony has used the Apple ecosystem for over a decade, and is an award-winning journalist with years of experience in editorial.