I let DaddyGPT parent my kids. Here's what I learned | Stephen Remedios
TED Talks Daily
TED
4.1 • 12.1K Ratings
🗓️ 2 April 2026
⏱️ 13 minutes
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Summary
As the world races toward digital perfection, tech humanist Stephen Remedios tried to optimize the messiest and most imperfect of all human work: parenting. He shares the story of DaddyGPT, a digital version of himself built to help raise his kids — until they began to prefer it over him. What unfolds is a personal look at the limits of AI, and a reminder that what matters most isn't getting it right every time but showing up with the authentic imperfection only humans have.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You're listening to TED Talks Daily, where we bring you new ideas to spark your curiosity every day. |
| 0:09.6 | I'm your host, Elise Hu. |
| 0:12.0 | It's a question we ask a lot on this show. |
| 0:15.1 | What happens when AI doesn't just help you but also starts to replace you? |
| 0:19.7 | Organizational strategy expert, Stephen Remedios, confronts this question every day. |
| 0:25.3 | And in today's talk, he shares the wild story of a parenting experiment he conducted, |
| 0:30.2 | where he created an AI version of himself to manage his children's constant questions and |
| 0:35.9 | requests. |
| 0:36.9 | But in the process, accidentally made something his kids maybe preferred over the real thing. |
| 0:43.0 | I asked him, champ, why are you going to this bot when I'm right beside you? |
| 0:47.7 | He didn't even look up from the extra screen time that Daddy GPT had just gifted him. |
| 0:53.9 | He shrugged and said, but Daddy, Daddy GPT is never busy. |
| 0:58.8 | Stephen explores the hidden cost of outsourcing our humanity, |
| 1:02.1 | and why speed and efficiency shouldn't always be the goal. |
| 1:06.2 | That's coming up right after a short break. |
| 1:21.9 | And now our TED Talk of the Day. |
| 1:30.2 | Right now, somewhere in the world, a manager is using chat GPT to write a performance appraisal. |
| 1:36.9 | A spouse is asking a digital companion for the perfect apology text. |
| 1:45.0 | A tired parent is handing over bedtime stories to a digital assistant. |
| 1:52.0 | What happens when your children prefer your digital clone to the real you? |
| 1:57.0 | I learned the answer to that question the hard way. |
| 2:05.5 | Last summer, my wife Ray was headed on an overseas trip for a week. I dropped her at the airport confident that I could manage our three teenage boys. After all, it was just seven days. By the sixth or seventh hour, |
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