A Tech Company Created An AI Chatbot Geared To Help New Parents

The beginning stages of parenthood are nothing short of overwhelming. Everyday brings a new problem, question, or weird rash that has you sending your pediatrician an e-mail.

New parents don’t know a damn thing, and for decades, they’ve relied on parenting books to help guide them through those first few years. Then came the internet which might be a little too vast in its knowledge. And it’s hard to know what advice is valid and what’s just a bad advice — or even dangerously wrong?

And so, both new parents and seasoned parents have a problem on their hands: either flipping through parenting books that could be dense or outdated, or braving the wilds of the internet, which is cluttered with misinformation.

Enter: ParentGPT.

A San Francisco-based tech startup, Oath Based, officially launched its AI chatbot at the end of last month. The company innovated generative AI tools that help everyday users with tasks such as creating text and images to creating music or writing a speech — and now they want to help moms and dads.

This AI tool powered by the popular ChatGPT, is aimed at helping parents, new and experienced, navigate the messy world of parenting.

Oath Care claims to be the first and only doctor-endorsed community platform for parents with a generative AI component built in. That means that if parents have a question about their kids or a mom is wondering about their own postpartum health, Oath Care can create an AI-based answer from actual doctors and peer-reviewed studies.

It's programmed to draw simple and easy-to-understand responses from three-dozen sources deemed credible by Oath Care such as the American Academy of Pediatrics, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) in the U.S., the National Health Service in the United Kingdom, and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

Cofounder of Oath Care, Michelle Stephens, who also happens to be a pediatric clinician, witnessed insufficient care recommendations of protocol for women and children in these early stages, and wanted to do something about it.

A mother seeking advice on breastfeeding, for instance, might find insights from a lactation consultant, a sleep specialist, and a therapist, supplemented by personal experiences shared by community members. This creates a comprehensive support system, re-creating the “village” experience that modern parents often lack, according to Stephens.

Stephens told Fast Company that Oath Care’s model exclusively pulls its evidence from peer review journals, which draws from only about “20 to 30 credible resources” — and they do continuous integration with those resources with every post.

“We’ve also thought about racial and ethnic alignment,” Stephens said in the interview, intentionally pairing patients with doctors who have similar ethnic backgrounds. “And we’ve thought about health literacy. So the way that we deliver information, especially from our specialists, is at our reading level that is most accessible by folks.”

Oath Care’s other cofounder and CEO, Camilla Hermann, told Mashable she wants to do more than just put expert information at parents' fingertips. She says the app is aimed to “reduce parents' stress by creating a community they can rely on for expertise, support, and insight.”

"Every part of what we've designed at Oath, including ParentGPT, is purpose-built to improve the health and well-being of our members," Hermann said.

The service costs $5 per month or an annual fee of $48 for access to specialists including doctors, nurses, doulas, and pelvic floor physiotherapists, to name a few. The platform is open to all across the U.S.