OpenAI is expanding its focus from individual users towards families, and is hiring a dedicated product manager in San Francisco to build experiences for families, caregivers and older adults across its products. The move signals a shift in how the company views ChatGPT — less as a personal productivity tool and more as technology embedded in households — mirroring the trajectory previously taken by Google, Apple and Meta, though analysts note AI raises the stakes because the assistant does more than merely mediate content or devices.

The push comes as ChatGPT's audience ages: Sensor Tower estimates the global share of users aged 35 and over rose to 31% in Q2 from 26% a year earlier, while 18-to-24-year-olds fell to 29% from 34%, and nearly one in four US smartphone-owning parents used the app during the quarter, up from 16%. It also arrives amid scrutiny over child safety, including lawsuits alleging ChatGPT contributed to harm to children, and OpenAI has responded with measures such as parental controls, routing sensitive conversations to reasoning models, and a "Trusted Contact" alert feature. New Family Online Safety Institute research of over 4,000 families found parents underestimate children's AI use, with 38% of children reporting weekly use versus the 27% their parents assumed.