Altman says that Gen Z chatgpt uses life decisions, this is why that is both smart and risky
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“They don’t make decisions about life without asking chatgpt what they should do.” That’s what Openi CEO Sam Altman said about Gen Z during a lecture on The AI Ascent event of Sequoia Capital recently.
It was not exactly shocking, more as confirmation of something that many of us already suspected and to which AI refers. People use chatgpt for much more than today’s test reading from e -mails or brainstorming nowadays. It has become a tool to think, to weigh options and sometimes make deeply personal decisions.
In many ways this is logical, especially for Gen Z. This is a generation that grew up online, formed by climate anxiety, economic instability and digital intimacy. Regarding an AI tool such as Chatgpt for Life Advice, some of us may seem like something interesting about how we think, Trus, T and decisions now.
And although Altman specifically had about Gen Z here, they are not the only ones who use chatgpt in this way. His wider point was that Chatgpt -Use of shifts per age group. Gen Z tends to treat it as “one operating system“While people from twenty and thirty use the lake as a life adviser. Older users, he said, tend to treat it as a smarter search engine and a replacement for Google.
I am in the late 1930s and I see many people in my millennial cohort exactly doing this. Ask it to check an e -mail one moment, to offer career advice the next time or to decode a cryptic text from a date.
So the big question is: should we use chatgpt in this way? Is it a sign of democratized support and important self -reflection? Or is it disturbing how comfortable we have become with outsourcing our most human struggles on a machine that is trained on the internet? Like most things with AI, I suspect that the truth is somewhere in between.
The benefits of asking Chatgpt for advice
Let’s start with the positives, because there are real. AI tools such as chatgpt are always available. They judge, interrupt or charge $ 100 per hour. For people without access to mentors, therapists or career coaches, that kind can always feel like a lifeline on advice.
When I looked at the rise of people who use it Chatgpt for support in therapy style Earlier this year, accessibility was a consistent theme. It is cheap, available 24/7 and crucial, private. You can ask everything without fear of shame or judgment.
And the value is not only in “replacing” a therapist or coach. Sometimes it is about having room to think out loud. Do you want to explore a big move? Testing the idea to set up with your work? Wonder how others have handled long-distance relationships or an ADHD diagnosis? You can ask, explore and revise, and nobody needs to know.
There is also an unexpected advantage when it comes to metacognition, which is the ability to think about your own thoughts. Chatgpt can help you by summarizing what you have said, asking clarifying questions or suggesting different perspectives. For neurodivergent users, especially those with ADHD or anxiety, that kind of structured reflection can feel incredibly supportive. I am starting to think that the real value here might not be that it gives you the answer, but that it helps you find your own.
The risks to have AI guided our lives
But this new way to make decisions also comes with a number of serious concerns.
First, algorithms are not wise. Chatgpt can imitate empathy, but it doesn’t feel it. It can sound measured, even attentive, but it has no intuition, intestinal instance, t or lived experience. It can’t say when you lie to yourself. It doesn’t know when the thing you didn’t say is the most important part.
Then there is the issue of bias. Large language models such as chatgpt are trained on massive data sets, which means that they absorb the mess of the internet from assumptions, blind spots and cultural prejudices.
There is also a clear accountability gap here. If a therapist gives you bad advice, they are responsible. If a friend leads you on a wandering track, they at least give it up. But if chatgpt pushes you for a large life decision that fails, who do you blame?
We already know Generative AI can hallucinateWhich means that it can come up with things that are completely not true or are misleading. It also tends to be Exaggerated optimistic and encouragingWhat is useful in some scenarios, but not always what you need if you struggle with something serious.
Psychologists have that too Targeted concern About replacing real relationships by AI-driven feedback klussen. A chatbot Maybe you feel “seen” without really understanding. It can offer closure that you have not earned. It can flatter your logic if you actually need someone to challenge it.
And we can’t ignore the bigger picture. It is in OpenAI’s best interest in people to use chatgpt for everything, especially life advice and emotional support. That is how it becomes indispensable. And with upgrades such as Advanced memoryThe tool gets better as the more knows about you. But the more it knows, the harder it is to walk away.
The consideration we don’t always see
It is not enough to say that the use of chatgpt for life advice is good or bad. That stains a much more complex reality.
Gen Z does not turn to AI because they do not realize that Chatgpt has no lived experience or because they think it is better than a therapist. I suspect most of it because the world feels unstable, overwhelming and difficult to navigate. In that context, a chatbot that is always available can never be tired and strange sounding, perhaps safer than asking a parent, teacher or boss.
And this is not just a gene trend. We live through a time when guidance is fragmented, authority is suspected and certainty is scarce. Of course, people of all ages will increasingly reach for a tool that offers what feels like immediate and useful clarity.
But what do we give up when we do that? I ask because I am not immune to this either. I write critically about AI. I regularly talk about its limits, the need for caution and the risks of overdue. And yet I asked chatgpt questions that I could probably have talked about with someone I know. Has it given me a faster answer? Maybe. A better one? Probably not. Did I miss a chance for a real connection? Certainly.
And that is the deeper problem. It is easy to criticize this trend from a privilege location. If you have offline relationships, familiar friends and a family that you can call. But not everyone does that. For many, AI fills an opening in left by broken systems, absent support and rising feelings of loneliness and decoupling.
Used softly, I think Chatgpt can be a helpful companion. A way to disgrace thoughts, explore perspectives and even rehearse difficult conversations. That is why I would never tell people that they should not use it for these things. But I would like to ask them to ask: why do I turn here to here? What could I avoid? And who else can I talk to? But again, what do I know? I’m just an older millennial.
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