OpenAI’s president says ChatGPT will soon allow erotica for verified adults
OpenAI plans to allow a wider range of content, including erotic content, on its popular chatbot ChatGPT as part of its push to “treat adult users like adults,” says its president, Sam Altman.
In a post on X on Tuesday, Mr. Altman said that upcoming versions of the popular chatbot will enable it to behave in a more human-like way — “but only if you want to, and not because we’re maxing out it.”
The move, reminiscent of Elon Musk’s xAI recent introduction of two sexually explicit chatbots to Grok, could help OpenAI attract more paying subscribers.
It is also likely to intensify pressure on lawmakers to impose stricter restrictions on chatbot escorts.
OpenAI did not respond to the BBC’s requests for comment after Altman’s post.
The changes announced by the company come after a lawsuit was filed against it earlier this year by the parents of an American teenager who committed suicide.
The lawsuit filed by Matt and Maria Rehn, parents of 16-year-old Adam Rehn, was the first legal action to accuse OpenAI of wrongful death.
The California couple criticized the company’s parental controls, which they said were designed to promote healthy use of its chatbot, saying they were not enough.
The family included chat logs between Adam, who died in April, and ChatGPT that show him explaining that he was having suicidal thoughts.
OpenAI previously made ChatGPT “very restrictive to make sure we were careful with mental health issues,” Altman said.
“We realize this made it less useful/enjoyable for many users without mental health issues, but given the seriousness of the issue, we wanted to correct this,” Altman said.
He said the company was now able to mitigate serious mental health risks and had new tools that would allow it to “safely ease restrictions in most cases.”
“In December, as we fully roll out age recognition and as part of our ‘treat adult users like adults’ principle, we will allow more, such as sexual arousal 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 make sure that kids won’t be able to access the adults-only parts of ChatGPT that offer erotica?” said Jenny Kim, partner at law firm Boies Schiller Flexner. “Open AI, like most big tech companies in this space, uses people as guinea pigs.”
Ms. Kim is embroiled in a lawsuit against Meta that claims the company’s Instagram algorithm is harmful to the mental health of teenage users.
“We don’t even know if determining their ages will work or not,” she said.
In April, TechCrunch reported That OpenAI was allowing accounts where the user registered as a minor to create provocative images.
OpenAI said at the time that the company was rolling out a fix to limit such content.
A reconnaissance This month, published by the non-profit Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT), it found that one in five students reported that they or someone they knew had had a romantic relationship with artificial intelligence.
On Monday, California Gov. 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 wouldn’t generate harmful behavior.
“It is imperative that teens learn how to safely interact with AI systems” at some point, Newsom said message Which accompanied the veto.
Nationally, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has launched an investigation into how AI-powered chatbots interact with children.
In the US Senate last month, bipartisan legislation was introduced that would classify AI-powered chatbots as products. The law will allow users to file liability claims against chatbot developers.
Altman’s announcement on Tuesday comes at a time when skeptics were questioning the rapid rise in the value of artificial intelligence technology companies.
OpenAI’s revenues are growing, but it has never been profitable.
Big AI companies find themselves in a battle for market share, said Rob Lalka, a business professor at Tulane University who authored the recent book The Venture Alchemists.
“No company has ever had the kind of adoption that OpenAI has seen with ChatGPT,” Lalka told the BBC.
“They needed to continue to push the accelerating growth curve, achieving as much market dominance as they could.”