Sarah Baldeo, a cognitive neuroscientist, built a custom AI clone of herself to stay present for her 15-year-old son while traveling for work. Instead of acting as a simple reminder or calendar tool, the chatbot was designed to sound like her and reflect the values she brings to parenting.
Baldeo programmed the chatbot with screenshots of texts between her and her son, along with documents that described her values and family rules. The goal was to give her son a version of his mother he could turn to while she was away, keeping a connection open even when she could not be there herself.
A Digital Version of Mom
The experiment also showed the limits of copying a parent’s voice and judgment. When Baldeo’s son asked the AI how to convince his mother to let him hang out at a coffee shop in Chicago, the chatbot answered with a platitudinal spiel. Its response included the line, “Your mom very much values new experiences.”
That answer may have sounded like Baldeo, but it did not settle the question in the way a real conversation with his mother would. The exchange captures the promise and awkwardness of AI parenting tools: a chatbot can draw on a family’s language and rules, yet it still has to turn those details into an answer for a real situation.
Baldeo’s clone is one example of parents using AI to stay connected, manage uncertainty, and create experiences for their children. The tools range from chatbots that imitate a parent to systems that organize family information, record conversations, or create stories for bedtime.
From Family Calendars to Bedtime Stories
Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, has recommended that parents connect their family calendars to ChatGPT and use AI to create podcasts for their children. He has also said, “I couldn’t imagine ‘figuring out how to raise a newborn without ChatGPT,’” describing AI as something he relies on to help him be a father.
Those suggestions place AI in the middle of everyday family routines. A shared calendar can help organize what parents and children need to do, while a podcast can turn information into something a child can listen to. In both cases, the technology serves as a support for family life rather than a copy of one parent.
Bedtime stories are another growing use. Meta is working on an AI app called “StoryKit” that generates and reads personalized bedtime stories for children. Numerous online services already allow parents to create AI children’s stories that include their children, giving families a way to place a child inside a story built for them.
These tools offer different forms of assistance, but they share one idea: AI can take family details and turn them into something parents or children can use. Baldeo’s chatbot draws on messages and family rules, while story tools draw on information about a child to produce personalized content.
Listening In on Family Life
One couple is interested in using an AI wearable called Omi, which constantly listens in on daily life. One parent is pushing for the device, while the other remains skeptical. That disagreement reflects a central question around AI parenting tools: how much of family life should a system record and interpret?
Omi supports a feature called Parent Whisperer. It records and summarizes conversations with children and can alert parents if a child might be upset. For parents, that could offer another way to notice what is happening in a child’s life. For families, it also means an AI system sits close to private conversations between parents and children.
The couple’s split over Omi shows that parents do not all see these tools in the same way. One parent sees value in having AI listen for signs that a child may be upset, while the other questions the role of a device that constantly listens. The technology creates a new parenting choice, not a shared answer.
AI as a Guide Through Uncertainty
Michelle Battersby, president of Peanut, said mothers often ask community members whether they agree with AI parenting advice instead of trusting the AI on its own. Peanut responded by adding an AI tool that searches the community for answers.
That approach treats AI as a way to find and organize the experiences of other parents, rather than as the final authority. A parent can use the tool to locate community answers and then decide how those answers fit the family’s situation.
“We don’t see moms using AI to make parenting more efficient. We see them coming to AI to help them navigate uncertainty,” Battersby said.
That idea connects the different examples. Baldeo’s son used AI while trying to persuade his mother, families are considering wearable systems that listen for signs of distress, and parents are turning to personalized stories, podcasts, calendars, and community answers. The tools differ, but each one tries to fill a gap in family life.
AI is not replacing the parent in these examples. It is taking on pieces of communication, organization, storytelling, and guidance, sometimes in ways that feel helpful and sometimes in ways that invite doubt. For families, the question is no longer only what AI can do. It is also which parts of parenting they want AI to enter.
Published Aug 29, 2026 6:01 AM EDT
Based on
