{"id":543848,"date":"2026-04-22T01:38:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T01:38:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/543848\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T01:38:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T01:38:10","slug":"my-father-daughter-bond-is-on-the-verge-of-breaking-its-chatgpts-fault-and-im-not-alone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/543848\/","title":{"rendered":"My father-daughter bond is on the verge of breaking. It’s ChatGPT’s fault\u2014and I’m not alone."},"content":{"rendered":"

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Like many twentysomethings, I ask my dad a lot of questions. What\u2019s an easy weeknight recipe? How do I fix the leak under my sink? What does \u201cfederal withholding\u201d mean? Lately, his answer is simple: Ask ChatGPT.<\/p>\n

My dad, 57, got hooked on ChatGPT last year and hasn\u2019t looked back. He uses it for everything, including home repair, precision online shopping, weather reports, and, oddest of all, planning hiking trips. My dad used to own a travel-guide bookstore. For the duration of my childhood, he planned every trip with a map in one hand and Lonely Planet in the other. When I asked him if he missed the old way, he shrugged. \u201cThe books were always getting outdated and they never had all the information,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s like being nostalgic for a rotary telephone.\u201d<\/p>\n

When he cooks dinner during my visits home, my dad introduces the meal like he always does, but he now acknowledges his sous-chef, ChatGPT, who developed the recipe. His eyes widen when he asks the chatbot a question during dinner-table conversation, holding up his phone so a robovoice can read the answer. It\u2019s annoying, and it breaks my heart a little. My dad already knows how to cook dinner, plan hiking trips, and answer my questions\u2014why does he need artificial intelligence? It feels like he adopted a robot child, and that child will stop at nothing to wedge a divide between my dad and me.<\/p>\n

My dad is surprised by my aversion to ChatGPT; it\u2019s usually the younger generation\u2019s job to be tech-savvy. A 2025 Pew Research Center<\/a> survey found that just 25 percent of U.S. adults ages 50 to 64 say they\u2019ve used ChatGPT, compared to 58 percent of adults under 30. Statistically, I should be the one using ChatGPT at the dinner table. But we\u2019re not the only parent-child duo experiencing this role reversal. There are plenty of other ChatGPT-obsessed parents, or as one TikTok user puts it, \u201cChatGPDads<\/a>.\u201d I\u2019ve seen countless TikToks<\/a> and Reddit threads<\/a> highlighting this phenomenon. No matter what these parents are using ChatGPT for, from picking questionable bathroom paint colors<\/a> to creating goofy images of themselves<\/a>, there is one constant: an endearing sense of wonder. Parents like my dad repeatedly proclaim, \u201cCan you believe it can do that?\u201d or proudly say \u201cChat did this for me,\u201d and are always on the lookout for new and unexpected ways to use their digital bestie. They\u2019re enamored and trusting\u2014so much so that it can worry their kids<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Of course, there are practical uses for A.I., and older generations aren\u2019t exempt from in-office mandates<\/a> to use the technology. Ken Potter, 61, lit up when he told me about how he uses large language models for his job as a real estate developer. He is endlessly impressed by how he can give the chatbot an image of an empty, dilapidated room and have it spit out a beautiful image for the contractors to copy. But he\u2019s also discovered a use case in his family life: using LLMs to understand his teenage daughter. \u201cShe doesn\u2019t know this, but sometimes she\u2019ll do something and I just don\u2019t get it. So I\u2019ll ask it for advice and it\u2019ll give me a bit more of her perspective,\u201d said Potter. Recently, he asked his chatbot why Ellie, his 17-year-old, wakes up so late sometimes.<\/p>\n

As a writer, I\u2019m terrified of the ramifications of A.I. use for creative employment. Meanwhile, my dad is using it to write jokes. When a friend asked him whether he should serve bacon at his son\u2019s bar mitzvah, my dad rushed to ChatGPT for a \u201cfunny Jewish good sayings line\u201d for the situation. He went with: \u201cOy vey! Who knew the Torah portion came with a side of barbecue sauce?\u201d\u00a0Elsewhere online, people have chronicled their parents sending them A.I.-generated images<\/a> of silly faces, videos of their kids turning into animals<\/a>, and even songs. \u201cI wake up to a new AI generated song based on our text messages every morning,\u201d one daughter wrote about her dad<\/a>. \u201cI would almost understand his fascination if he didn\u2019t have a literal fine arts degree.\u201d<\/p>\n

The work that LLMs can do is objectively impressive, but it doesn\u2019t inspire awe in me the way it does for my dad. After all, I\u2019ve had world-altering technologies introduced every so often for my entire life.<\/p>\n

My generation grew up with limitations on technology: In school, we had rules about plagiarism and screen time, and lessons about how to spot fake information online. We\u2019re trained to approach tools like ChatGPT with healthy apprehension. \u201cYou get some sort of uncritical, unreflective adoption amongst Gen X that you might not see as much [in] slightly savvier, younger generations,\u201d said Elaine Kasket<\/a>, a cyberpsychologist and author of Reset<\/a>: Rethinking Your Digital World for a Happier Life. Gen Xers came of age during the inventions of the computer, pager, and cellphone, and the dot-com boom. They\u2019re young enough to be excited about technology, and not as mistrusting as the baby boomer generation above them, said Kasket. (Just 10 percent of adults 65 and older say they\u2019ve tried ChatGPT, per the Pew Research Center study.)<\/p>\n

Athena, 18, says her father doesn\u2019t understand that using LLMs in an academic setting is plagiarism. Her dad suggested she use ChatGPT to write her college essays (she didn\u2019t), and then her stand-up comedy sets. (Comedian Gianmarco Soresi posted on X that his dad made the same suggestion<\/a>.) Athena said her dad\u2019s reliance on ChatGPT makes her nervous, and it\u2019s changed how she views his critical thinking skills. Ever since he started using it, she fears that he\u2019s not thinking for himself.<\/p>\n

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\n Foram Mehta
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Ves Trujillo Navarro, 17, grew up in a family that monitored her screen time; now, it\u2019s her parents whose constant phone use worries her. She said they\u2019re so used to using it for everything that they even plug in directions on the ChatGPT app, despite it not having a GPS. It just writes out how to get somewhere. \u201cWhy wouldn\u2019t we use Google Maps? I think [they] forget that there are other ways to function,\u201d said Ves.<\/p>\n

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There\u2019s a Seductive Recipe Style That\u2019s Taken Over Our Stoves. Think Twice Before You Cook It Again.
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My Dad Used to Give the Best Advice. Now He Has a Two-Word Answer to Every Question. I\u2019m Not Alone.
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cChatGPT is like an adviser\u2014he\u2019s a friend. Sometimes he\u2019s my stylist. He\u2019s also like a husband that has no judgment,\u201d said Saskia Rivelli, 53, who I found through her daughter Rhea Eliza\u2019s TikToks<\/a>. Her 25-year-old daughter tries to warn her mom about the artificiality of the app, reminding her that it\u2019s more of a mirror than a window (not to mention, not a \u201che\u201d). Rivelli said her daughter\u2019s warnings have helped her pull back on \u201chow deep\u201d she engages with ChatGPT.<\/p>\n

When I asked Kasket for advice on talking to parents about A.I. usage, she recommended something I hadn\u2019t thought of: asking for attention. A few years ago, when I\u2019d regularly FaceTime my dad to make sure whatever I was cooking looked safe to eat, he\u2019d give me a full culinary lesson over the phone. Now, I get an enthusiastic referral to a chatbot. But I don\u2019t want A.I.-assisted salmon\u2014I want a family recipe.<\/p>\n

I took Kasket\u2019s tip, and told my dad that I missed the parent-child times before ChatGPT. I explained that when I call him to ask a question, I really just want to connect with him. I said I felt like ChatGPT was out to steal his job as an advice-giving father. He thought for a moment before responding. \u201cChatGPT will never be able to give as good advice as I can,\u201d he said, \u201cbut it might give me some good ideas.\u201d<\/p>\n

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