Father’s little helper
Just how does he do it all? Every time I look at the news, Sam Altman’s face seems to be staring back at me. The CEO of OpenAI, a well-known workaholic, is constantly in the public eye explaining how AI will probably cure cancer and transform the social contract and generally change the world. While doing all that he’s reportedly gearing up for OpenAI to file for a stock market listing valuing the company at $1tn, as soon as next year. And he’s also a new dad: Altman and his husband, Oliver Mulherin, welcomed their first child into the world in February. So he’s got a lot on his plate.
The billionaire does have a little bit of help though, and he’s not afraid to admit it. On Monday Altman made his late-night debut on Jimmy Fallon’s The Tonight Show, where he waxed lyrical about how helpful ChatGPT has been in helping him raise his son.
“I cannot imagine having gone through figuring out how to raise a newborn without ChatGPT,” Altman gushed to Fallon. Perhaps a little self-awareness crept in at that moment because he added: “Clearly, people did it for a long time – no problem … but I have relied on it so much.”
How exactly does Altman use ChatGPT to help him figure out “how to raise a newborn?” Well, he told Fallon, once he asked the large language model: “Why does my kid stop dropping his pizza on the floor and laughing? [sic]” Altman didn’t explain what ChatGPT answered, but I imagine it was along the lines of: because he is a kid and that’s what kids do.
Another moment when ChatGPT helped Altman along his parenting journey, we learned, was when he felt a little insecure after another parent boasted about their six-month-old crawling. Altman told Fallon that he then ran to the bathroom and asked AI if it was “okay” that his son wasn’t crawling yet; ChatGPT offered some soothing words of wisdom.
Fallon is not a journalist. His job isn’t to ask tough questions, it’s to cackle every few minutes and slap his hands on his desk. Still, it would have been nice if the late night host had spent just a couple of minutes asking one of the most powerful men in the world a few tough questions instead of just letting Altman do PR for himself and OpenAI.
He could have asked Altman, for example, about his appearance on the OpenAI podcast earlier this year, when the CEO noted that people have a “very high degree of trust in ChatGPT, which is interesting because, like, AI hallucinates. It should be the tech that you don’t trust that much”.
And if Fallon didn’t want to go deep into the thorny issues of AI hallucinations and AI psychosis, he could have at least investigated Altman’s child-rearing arrangements a little more. Fallon could have asked Altman, for example, if his husband did all the caregiving, or if he happened to have a nanny.
Altman and his husband have never made any public comments about having a nanny, to be clear. And they are, of course, entitled to keep their private life private. However, considering the fact that Altman has gushed about how “kid-pilled” he is and how “everybody should have a lot of kids”, I think it might be helpful for him to also point out the ways in which his particular experience of child-rearing might be different to that of the hoi polloi.
Altman and his husband had their child via surrogate, for example. It’s easy to be gung ho about how everyone should be having lots of kids when you don’t have to do any of the carrying and delivering. It’s easy to be breezy about pumping out children when you’re not the one taking on any of the risks that pregnancy and childbirth involve. And while pregnancy always comes with risks, research has found surrogates have a greater chance of both physical and mental complications than women who carry their own offspring.
While Altman may not be able to imagine figuring out how to raise a newborn without ChatGPT, I’m fairly confident he would be able to find a way to manage. What I have a harder time imagining, however, is a world in which high-powered executives (including female executives) would be able to do their jobs and have children without a lot of hired domestic help. There’s nothing wrong with hiring help, of course. What’s problematic is pretending that all this labour – which tends to be underpaid, underappreciated, and disproportionately performed by women – doesn’t exist.
Gaza newborn mortality rates up 75% compare with pre-war levels
That’s according to figures released on Wednesday by Unicef, which looked at the number of babies dying on the day they were born in Gaza during the three months before the “ceasefire”. Meanwhile, Israel is still restricting essential items from entering Gaza and there have been reports that at least one child has died because of the extreme cold in the last few days.
The pop star recently shared a collaborative post on social media for Hallow, a Catholic prayer subscription service which has received funding and support from the likes of JD Vance and Peter Thiel. This hasn’t gone down well. The influencer Matt Bernstein, for example, called out Stefani in a video which noted that there are numerous anti-abortion prayers on the app, including one that asked to bless women “pregnant from acts of rape and incest” who are considering abortion.
Democrats publish more photos from Jeffrey Epstein estate
The latest photo dump includes new pictures of Donald Trump, Bill Clinton and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.
Eleven women jailed in Texas allege rampant sexual abuse
The Guardian spoke with six of the women alleging abuse at FMC Carswell in Texas, who said sexual assault is common and ignored by staff. “Coming into the system, whether you’re guilty or not, it’s like you’re punished over and over again,” said one incarcerated woman. “It’s like human trafficking behind prison walls.”
Bestselling author Sophie Kinsella dies of a brain tumour age 55
Kinsella’s “deceptively light” books cheered up millions of people. This was very sad news.
Eileen Higgins becomes Miami’s first Democratic mayor in 30 years
Higgins, who pulled off a “stunning upset victory”, is also the city’s first female mayor.
Meta shuts down global accounts linked to abortion advice and queer content
Campaigners call this one of the “biggest waves of censorship” on Meta platforms in years.
The week in pawtriarchy
Remember the drunk raccoon who was found passed out in a Virginia liquor store? It turns out he has quite the rap sheet. The Animal Protection Officer who helped deal with the inebriated mammal has said that the raccoon has made numerous visits to the strip mall where the liquor store was located. “Supposedly, this is the third break-in he’s had. He was in the karate studio – I think he got into the DMV [and] ate some of their snacks one time.” The Trashed Panda, as he is now known, has his own line of merch after his latest heist, and can probably afford to buy his own snacks.
