OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced on X that the company will soon relax some of its safety restrictions allowing users to make the chatbot’s responses friendlier or more “human-like,” and for “verified adults” to engage in erotic conversations.
“We made ChatGPT pretty restrictive to make sure we were being careful with mental health issues. We realize this made it less useful/enjoyable to many users who had no mental health problems, but given the seriousness of the issue we wanted to get this right,” said Altman. “In December, as we roll out age-gating more fully and as part of our ‘treat adult users like adults’ principle, we will allow even more, like erotica for verified adults.”
This comes a day after California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a series of bills targeting child safety as concerns rise about the risks of artificial intelligence and social media.
Altman said that this adults-only version of ChatGPT will be launched at the end of the year, and that only verified users will be able to access it. Previously, Elon Musk’s Grok had launched an adult chatbot called Ani, courting controversy since it is included in an app rated 12+ for users.
READ: Musk’s Grok AI may violate App Store rules over inappropriate content in 12+ app (
Altman’s announcement comes at a time when there are rising concerns about users — including teens — forming parasocial relationships with chatbots to the detriment of their mental health.
Several concerning stories have emerged recently about ChatGPT, especially the GPT-4o model. In one case ChatGPT seemed to convince a man he was a math genius who needed to save the world. In another, the parents of a teenager sued OpenAI, alleging ChatGPT encouraged their son’s suicidal ideations in the weeks leading up to his death.
OpenAI has responded to these concerns saying it is taking steps to address these issues. The company, in August announced new features to ChatGPT that would help stop users’ unhealthy behavior. The company also launched safety features for minors, including an age prediction system and a way for parents to control their teens’ ChatGPT account.
OpenAI also announced the formation of an expert council of mental health professionals to advise the company on well-being and AI. Nevertheless, these concerns remain, and have been exacerbated by the latest announcement.
READ: OpenAI to add mental health features to ChatGPT (
The introduction of erotic content is uncharted territory for OpenAI. However, similar content has been available on other chatbot providers like Character.AI.
Having “romantic relationships” with chatbots is becoming increasingly common with a new report from the Center for Democracy and Technology finding that 19% of high school students have either had a romantic relationship with an AI chatbot, or know a friend who has. There have been a growing number of cases of people, including minors becoming addicted to companion bots that encouraged self-harm, suicide, and violence.
An OpenAI spokesperson told TechCrunch that the company will rely on the age-prediction system it’s building to ensure that ChatGPT’s erotic features are only available to adult users.
Altman claims that OpenAI is also making ChatGPT friendlier and erotic because of the company’s “treat adult users like adults” principle. Over last year, the company shifted to a “more lenient” content strategy, allowing the chatbot to be more permissive and offer less refusals. In February, OpenAI pledged to represent more political viewpoints in ChatGPT, and in March, the company updated ChatGPT to allow AI-generated images of hate symbols.