{"text":[[{"start":5.96,"text":"Sam Altman is in the early stages of parenthood so we should probably cut him a bit of slack. The OpenAI chief and frontman for ChatGPT is still learning how things work with the original and greatest large language model of all time: little children. His 18-month-old son probably has only a few words at the moment but from here on in the speed of development is astonishing. In a few months, he will be able to tell Sam exactly where he can stick the stewed apple."}],[{"start":34.06,"text":"Which is pretty much the response Altman got to a weekend social media post raving about a “cool use of chatgpt”. What was this exciting idea? Well, said Sam, connect your family calendars and explain your kids’ interests, and every morning on the drive to school ChatGPT could create a podcast that talks about “the kid’s soccer game that afternoon or an upcoming birthday, some news etc”."}],[{"start":58.92,"text":"Naturally, Sam got roasted for his helpful suggestion. “Or you could just try talking to your kids” was a pretty standard reply."}],[{"start":66.52,"text":"Now, Sam was just boosting for his product and hadn’t quite thought it through. He’s not reached that development stage of fatherhood yet, though progress is exponential. Then again, in his world, why would anyone even be driving the kids to school themselves? Just shove them in an autonomous vehicle, and let RoboDad do the rest."}],[{"start":84.88,"text":"I have to say that as the parent who walked the kids to school every morning, I cherished that time and stretched it out well beyond the point where they wanted their dad accompanying them. The idea that you would lazily trade away storytime or conversation to some AI model is so entirely bonkers. Trust me, Sam, these are the times you miss when they are gone. Talking with your kids and teaching them how to converse, those are some of the best bits."}],[{"start":108.7,"text":"We have, of course, all had times when we just want a bit of breathing space. I admit that in my more harassed moments I may have bought myself 30 minutes by sitting the spawn down in front of a Baby Mozart DVD. It was part of a series called Baby Einstein, specifically designed to ease the guilt of parents who felt bad about parking their kids in front of the telly, by suggesting you were really improving their brain power rather than just buying yourself a quiet cup of tea. The various videos, Baby Bach, Baby Beethoven, Baby Backstreet Boys (well, maybe not) paired stimulating patterns with great music to bring out your child’s inner genius. Reader, I’m not sure it worked."}],[{"start":150.54,"text":"So I can empathise with the notion of any parent taking a quick break to retreat into their den, garden or head. But what is disconcerting about this particular case is the mindset of the man who thinks it’s a “cool use”. Much of the public promotion of AI, when you strip it back, is of the “you don’t have to bother with this any more”. Be it research, data analytics, coding, medical breakthroughs or overseeing the nation’s nuclear deterrent."}],[{"start":176.72,"text":"And now you don’t even need to bother with parenting. Ask Elon Musk’s Grok to teach your kids manners. OpenAI can do the homework with them. Hopefully, AI will soon get us to the full Aldous Huxley experience by cracking breastfeeding and childbirth. Then we can just sit at home all day binge-watching Westworld."}],[{"start":195.72,"text":"Last year, Altman told a chat show: “I cannot imagine having gone through figuring out how to raise a newborn without ChatGPT.” Well, Sam, what can I tell you? We coped."}],[{"start":206.28,"text":"I’ve no doubt there are lots of genuinely useful ways AI will help with parenting, managing your playdates diary, monitoring social media usage and so on. What worries me about this, however, and this goes way beyond parenting, is that so much of its development seems to lie with people who see their core mission as taking humans out of the picture, who believe that humanity would be better without people."}],[{"start":229.16,"text":"It is also possible that the kind of people leading the AI race are, how can I put this, those who find it easier to talk to machines than children. But I hope for his kid’s sake that Sam comes to realise that a cool use of ChatGPT is not coming up with ways to remove parents from their children’s upbringing."}],[{"start":247.16,"text":"At one level this was just a silly mistake, a moment of unfiltered exuberance. All the same, I’d be a lot more confident about the future if it wasn’t in the hands of people who seem to think Brave New World is a parenting manual."}],[{"start":263.68,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1786135440_3529.mp3"}