Remarks by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman (샘 알트먼) that Gen Z and college students are using ChatGPT not as a simple search tool but like a personal operating system are drawing attention.

On May 10, local time, blockchain outlet Cryptopolitan reported that Altman said at an AI event by Sequoia Capital that how people use ChatGPT differs clearly by age group.

Altman said relatively older users treat ChatGPT like a smarter search engine, while people in their 20s and 30s use it more like a personal assistant. He added that college students, in particular, have woven ChatGPT deeply into their everyday workflows by linking lecture notes, PDFs, cloud storage, calendars and coding tools.

That trend is also reflected in OpenAI’s internal figures and external surveys. Data OpenAI released in February 2025 showed U.S. users aged 18 to 24 adopted ChatGPT faster than other age groups. Figures reviewed by Business Insider also showed more than 30 percent of that age group was already using ChatGPT. A Pew Research Center survey found 26 percent of U.S. teenagers aged 13 to 17 used ChatGPT for school assignments in 2024.

How college students use it goes beyond simply assisting with assignments. Users are creating reusable prompts tailored for writing, studying, research summaries, schedule management and software development. They are also connecting multiple sources and tools around ChatGPT to build what amounts to a single work environment.

Altman said some younger users even ask ChatGPT first about personal decisions. "There are cases where people leave life decisions to ChatGPT," he said. "It’s because ChatGPT has the context, including what conversations it had with people around them," he said.

Educational institutions are still adapting to the change. Some universities allow limited use of generative AI for brainstorming or sentence edits, but require students to disclose if they used AI for an assignment. Others have tightened rules over concerns about plagiarism and excessive reliance.

Markets and academia are focusing on the idea that AI is moving from a productivity tool to an everyday decision-making tool. Assessments are mixed. A study cited by business outlet Fortune in November 2023 warned that safety-related advice generated by ChatGPT still requires expert verification.

Other studies said large language models can produce persuasive answers without real empathy, judgment or moral reasoning, and that bad advice could cause problems. Some views also say AI can be practical for everyday organization, idea generation and low-stakes decisions.

Altman compared the current moment to the early spread of smartphones. "I remember when smartphones first came out, all the kids were very skilled at using them," he said, adding that it took older age groups a long time to learn even basic functions. He said the gap in how quickly generations adapt to technology is repeating in this AI transition.

ChatGPT’s role is also growing inside OpenAI. Altman said, "ChatGPT is writing a lot of the code inside OpenAI right now." He did not disclose the specific share, but it shows AI moving beyond personal daily tools and deeper into companies’ internal development processes. As a result, competition around ChatGPT is shifting from a simple race over chatbot performance to how naturally it can integrate users’ workflows and decision-making overall.