OpenAI chief says Gen Z no longer makes important life decisions without asking ChatGPT, and students are already one step ahead
As ChatGPT becomes more sophisticated, how it's used differs significantly from generation to generation, according to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. He says older people are using the chatbot as a replacement for Google, while young people are increasingly treating it as someone to ask for life advice..
“It's a gross oversimplification, but older people use ChatGPT as a replacement for Google. Those in their 20s and 30s (so-called Generation Z, no) use it more as someone to ask for life advice, and students use it as an operating system,” Sam Altman said at Sequoia Capital's AI Ascent event in May, according to Fortune magazine.
Sam Altman said young people have complex ways to set it up, link it to files and use elaborate prompts, which they memorize or keep saved.
“I find that very interesting and impressive. And there's another aspect: many of them don't really make major life decisions without first asking ChatGPT what they should do,” Altman said.
In 2025, OpenAI published a report showing that US college-age youth use ChatGPT more than any other user category or use case. The company said more than a third of Americans between the ages of 18 and 24 use ChatGPT.
According to Altman, younger users can do this because ChatGPT remembers previous conversations with the user.
“It has the whole context of each person in their life and what they discussed,” he said.
Studies show that people use ChatGPT for everything from relationship advice to business or health questions. Some even use it as an alternative to talk therapy.
At the same time, specialists in these fields are divided about the safety and usefulness of consulting ChatGPT for important life decisions.
For example, a study published in November 2023 “highlights the need for caution in using ChatGPT for safety information and peer review, as well as the need for ethical considerations and safeguards for users to understand limitations and receive appropriate advice.”
Another study argued that large language models such as OpenAI ChatGPT are “inherently sociopathic”, making it difficult to fully trust the advice they provide.
