# AI Household Expansion and Quantum Funding Shifts

**Podcast:** TechCrunch Daily Crunch
**Published:** 2026-07-14

## Transcript

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Opening eye bets on families as ChatGPT goes deeper into households.
I'm Imran Shaikh, and this is a TechCrunch Daily Crunch special.
Before we get started, let's find out the latest in startup business news all in about one minute with our friend, producer Dennis.
Thank you, Imran.
And a number of companies betting on various architectural approaches are trying to build the first.
commercially viable quantum computer capable of significantly outperforming current systems.
Oratomic, which entered the race earlier this year with the goal of developing the first quality-scale quantum computer by the end of the decade, said this week that it has raised $300 million.
Founded by Caltech physicists, Oratomic uses lasers which act as optical tweezers to hold individual atoms in place as the basis for its quantum computer.
While most other quantum companies are making prototypes available to research scientists and corporations, Oratomic has no plans to develop or sell these systems known as noisy intermediate scale quantum or NISQ.
And that'll do it for me.
Imran, back to you.
More than three years after ChatGPT's launch brought generative AI into the mainstream, OpenAI is broadening its focus beyond individual users to families.
Turns out, OpenAI is hiring a dedicated product manager in San Francisco to build experiences for families, caregivers, and older adults across its products.
Now, the role calls for experience building products for parents and families and other trust-sensitive consumer experiences, according to the job posting.
You see, the hiring comes as ChatGPT's audience continues to broaden beyond younger users.
According to Censored Tower estimates shared exclusively with TechCrunch, the share of ChatGPT users...
aged 35 and older globally, rose to 31% in Q2 from 26% a year earlier, while the share of users aged 18 to 24 fell to 29% from 34%.
In the U.S., nearly one in four smartphone users who are parents used ChatGPT during the quarter, up from 16% a year earlier, the firm estimates.
OpenAI did not respond to requests for comment about the job posting.
Now, a dedicated product role focused on families signals that OpenAI is beginning to think about its products less as tools for individual productivity and more as technology designed for households, said Ben Bajarin, chief executive of technology consultancy Creative Strategies.
This is similar to the path Google...
Apple and Meta eventually followed as their platforms became embedded in everyday life.
But AI raises the stakes because the assistant is not just mediating content or devices, he told TechCrunch.
That shift also brings new trust and safety challenges.
Stephen Balkam, chief executive of the Family Online Safety Institute, said the hiring reflects both the maturation of OpenAI and a growing recognition that AI products used by children and teenagers require different safeguards than those designed for adults.
I see this as safety by redesign, Balkam told TechCrunch.
Continuing, you take the initial product or service that was released.
Not really with kids in mind.
So this is a much-needed reaction and response.
The comments come as new research published this week by the Family Online Safety Institute found that parents are underestimating how often their children use generative AI.
While 27% of U.S.
parents said their child had used generative AI in the past week, 38% of children reported doing so themselves, according to the survey of more than 4,000 families in the United States and Australia.
Balcom told TechCrunch that AI companies should build products differently for younger users, with stronger content controls, age-appropriate experiences, parental oversight, and reminders to inform users that they are interacting with an AI and not a human.
And so, the hiring also comes amid growing scrutiny of how AI companies protect younger users.
OpenAI has faced multiple lawsuits from parents alleging that ChatGPT contributed to harm suffered by their children, including in cases involving suicide.
In response to some of those concerns, OpenAI has introduced a series of safety measures over the past year, including parental controls for teen accounts, routing sensitive conversations to reasoning models designed to better handle signs of distress, and, more recently, an optional trusted contact feature that can alert a family member or caregiver in cases of potential self-harm.
AI companies, Balcom said, have an opportunity to avoid the mistakes made by social media platforms, which for years treated children much more.
like adults before adding stronger safeguards amid mounting public pressure and regulatory scrutiny.
The hiring also aligns with OpenAI's broader efforts around families.
In a recent workshop organized with the San Antonio Spurs Community Impact Organization and the Positive Coaching Alliance, The company said it aimed to explore AI's role in learning, coaching, and youth engagement.
That said, the demographic shift is not unique to ChatGPT, though OpenAI's audience is changing in some distinct ways.
Sensor Tower estimates that users aged 25 to 34 account for 40% of the global app audiences for Anthropics' Claude and Google's Gemini, matching ChatGPT compared with 33% for Microsoft's Copilot.
Copilot, however, skews older, with...
20% of its users aged 45 and above, compared with 14% for Claude, 12% for Gemini, and 11% for ChatGPT.
While ChatGPT remains relatively underpenetrated among older users, it is adding them faster than its rivals.
The share of users aged 45 and above rose 3 percentage points year over year in the second quarter, compared with a 2-point increase for Copilot and declines for Claude and Gemini, according to SensorTower.
Among U.S.
smartphone users who are parents, Gemini had the widest reach at 32% in Q2, followed by ChatGPT at 24%, Claude at 4%, and CoPilot at 2%.
For Bajarin, OpenAI's decision to hire a product manager focused on families, signals, where consumer AI is headed.
As AI becomes a technology shared across generations, he expects companies to roll out family plans, child and teen profiles, caregiver tools, shared household memory, AI tutoring, and stronger safety controls.
And folks, that's your Daily Crunch.
Today's stories were reported by Jagmeet Singh and more awesome TechCrunch journalists.
We'll see you here tomorrow.
Same tech time, same Crunch channel.
And until then, find us at TechCrunch.com.