Younger generations use ChatGPT very differently than older users, said Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI. College students, in particular, have integrated chatbots so deeply into their routines that it now acts like a digital operating system for many of them.
Altman spoke about this apparent generation gap at the AI Ascent event organized by Sequoia Capital. Older users mostly use ChatGPT as a smarter search engine, while people in their 20s and 30s use it as a personal advisor. He’s also noticed that college students are building entire career paths around it.
“They’re already using it as an operating system,” Altman said He said During the interview that Sequoia posted on YouTube. “They have complex ways of setting it up to associate it with a bunch of files, and they have fairly complex prompts that are saved in their heads or in something where they paste it and remove it.”
Many younger users are consulting ChatGPT to make their personal decisions, Altman said. Why not? The system is very useful in its previous conversations and context.
“One more thing, they don’t make their life decisions without asking ChatGPT what they should do,” Altman said. “It has the full context of each person’s life and what they talked about.”
His comments highlight how AI tools are moving beyond productivity software and becoming part of the daily lives of their younger users.
Students are adopting ChatGPT faster than anyone else
OpenAI’s own data supports Altman’s observations.
Americans between the ages of 18 and 24 are adopting ChatGPT Faster than any other demographic, according to another OpenAI report in February 2025. Business Insider confirms that more than 30% of people in this age group are already using the platform.
Separate research by Pew Research Center found that 26% of US teens ages 13 to 17 used ChatGPT for schoolwork in 2024. This was up sharply from 13% in 2023.
For many students, using ChatGPT as an “operating system” means more than just asking homework questions. Users connect the chatbot to lecture notes, PDF files, cloud storage, calendars, and markup tools. Some build quick, reusable templates for writing, studying, research summaries, scheduling, and software development.
Universities are still trying to catch up. Many schools now allow a limited amount of AI-assisted brainstorming or editing, but require students to disclose when they use generative AI tools in assignments. Others have tightened restrictions due to concerns about plagiarism and over-reliance on artificial intelligence systems.
Researchers say this trend is similar to previous technological shifts that included smartphones and search engines. But this shift may be deeper as AI systems increasingly become part of how users think, organize information and make decisions.
Experts still divided on AI as a ‘life advisor’
Not everyone believes that relying on AI for personalized advice is harmless.
A November 2023 study cited by Fortune warned that safety tips generated by ChatGPT still require expert verification. Users should understand the limitations of AI systems before acting on recommendations, the researchers said.
Other studies have raised concerns that big language models can appear convincing even when their advice is flawed because the systems lack real empathy, judgment, or moral reasoning.
At the same time, some researchers argue that using AI for routine organization, brainstorming, or low-risk decision making may be beneficial and relatively low-risk.
Altman compared the current moment to the early smartphone era, when younger users adapted much faster than older generations.
“It reminds me of the time when the smartphone came out, and every kid was able to use it very well,” he said. In contrast, older users “took three years to figure out how to do basic things.”
Altman also said that ChatGPT “now writes a lot of our code” internally at OpenAI, though he did not give a specific percentage. By comparison, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said in 2024, AI systems will generate more than 25% of new code at Google.
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