ChatGPT will soon allow erotica for verified adults, says OpenAI boss

OpenAI plans to allow a wider range of content, including erotica, on its popular chatbot ChatGPT as part of its commitment to “treat adult users like adults,” says boss Sam Altman.

In a post to

The move, reminiscent of Elon Musk’s xAI recent introduction of two sexually explicit chatbots at Grok, could help OpenAI attract more paying subscribers.

It will also likely increase pressure on lawmakers to implement stricter restrictions on chatbot companions.

OpenAI did not respond to the BBC’s requests for comment on Mr Altman’s post.

The changes announced by the company come after it was sued earlier this year by the parents of an American teenager who committed suicide.

The lawsuit filed by Matt and Maria Raine, the parents of 16-year-old Adam Raine, was the first legal action accusing OpenAI of wrongful death.

The Californian couple criticized the company’s parental controls – which they said were intended to promote healthier chatbot use – saying it did not go far enough.

The family added chat logs between Adam, who died in April, and ChatGPT, showing he had suicidal thoughts.

Altman said OpenAI previously made ChatGPT “quite restrictive to make sure we were careful about mental health issues.”

“We realize that this made it less useful/enjoyable for many users who did not have mental health issues, but given the severity of the problem, we wanted to address this properly,” Altman said.

He said the company has now been able to mitigate serious mental health risks and has new tools that will allow it to “safely ease restrictions in most cases”.

“In December, as we roll out age restrictions more fully and as part of our ‘treat adult users like adults’ principle, we will allow even more, such as erotica for verified adults,” he said.

Critics say OpenAI’s decision to allow erotica on the platform shows the need for more regulation at the federal and state levels.

“How are they going to ensure that children don’t have access to the adult-only parts of ChatGPT that offer erotic content?” said Jenny Kim, partner at law firm Boies Schiller Flexner. “Open AI, like most major technology in this field, merely uses humans as guinea pigs.”

Ms Kim is involved in a lawsuit against Meta that claims the company’s Instagram algorithm is harming the mental health of teenage users.

“We don’t even know if their age verification will work,” she said.

In April, TechCrunch reported that OpenAI allowed accounts in which a user had registered as a minor to generate graphic erotica.

OpenAI said at the time that the company was rolling out a solution to restrict such content.

A survey released this month by the nonprofit Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) found that one in five college students report that they or someone they know has had a romantic relationship with AI.

On Monday, California Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill passed by the state legislature that would have prevented developers from offering AI chatbot companions to children unless the companies could guarantee the software would not cause harmful behavior.

Newsom said it is “imperative that adolescents learn how to safely interact with AI systems” in a message that accompanied his veto.

At a national level, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has launched an investigation into the way AI chatbots interact with children.

Last month, bipartisan legislation was introduced in the US Senate that would classify AI chatbots as products. The law would allow users to file liability claims against chatbot developers.

Mr Altman’s announcement on Tuesday comes as skeptics question the rapid rise in the value of AI technology companies.

OpenAI’s revenue is growing, but has never been profitable.

Rob Lalka, a business professor at Tulane University and author of the recent book The Venture Alchemists, said the big AI companies are in a battle for market share.

“No company has ever had the kind of adoption that OpenAI saw with ChatGPT,” Lalka told the BBC.

“They needed to continue that exponential growth curve and achieve as much market dominance as possible.”

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