Sam Altman says parenting changed his view on iPads — and that he wants his son to ‘play in the dirt’

Sam Altman doesn’t want an iPad kid.

The OpenAI CEO welcomed a baby in 2025. Since then, he’s shared tips and stories about raising his son, including how he uses AI in his parenting.

That doesn’t mean he wants his son growing up with full tech access. On the “Mostly Human” podcast, Altman said that having a child changed his views on algorithmic feeds and the “infinite scroll” model.

“When I watch kids just a little bit older than mine that you cannot take the iPad away from,” Altman said, “that I feel very strongly about.”

Kids and young people are a significant share of ChatGPT users. They use it as a study tool, a daily helper, or a companion to vent to.

Altman said he wasn’t sure exactly when he’d let his son talk to AI. He’d “rather be on the late end of what’s reasonable there, not the early end,” he said.

“I want him to play in the dirt for now,” Altman said.

Host Laurie Segall said that as a mom, she thinks a lot about how her kids use technology and expressed frustration with people who create the tech, but then send their children to school without it. Google CEO Sundar Pichai’s son didn’t have a phone when he was 11, and Bill Gates didn’t give his kids phones until they were 14.

Altman shared “one version of the future” that he was excited about, where their kids would have the tech at school.

He described new schools with a couple of hours of “intense, personalized, one-on-one tutoring with AI,” followed by projects set up by the school.

“That seems great,” Altman said. “But, you can also imagine a lot of worlds where it goes wrong.”

While Altman’s son may have limited access to tech, his father is using it all the time. In December, Altman told Jimmy Fallon that he couldn’t imagine “‘figuring out how to raise a newborn without ChatGPT.”

He recounted a party where another parent said their six-month-old was “crawling everywhere.” Altman said he rushed to the bathroom and asked ChatGPT whether he should be concerned that his child was not at the same stage. ChatGPT gave him the “great answer” that his son was developmentally normal, he said.

One area where fatherhood hasn’t changed his viewpoint: making safe AI. Altman said on the podcast that he’s often asked whether he now feels “more responsibility” about not destroying the world.

His answer: no, because avoiding world destruction has always been his highest priority.

“I knew I was going to have kids,” Altman said. “I thought a lot about what I would feel about the world my future kids would grow up in.”