OpenAI to ‘Relax’ Restrictions for Adults, Will Allow ‘Erotica’

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said on Tuesday that ChatGPT will “relax” certain restrictions and soon allow for the creation of adult-themed content like “erotica.”

Key Quotes: Altman wrote on X, “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. Now that we have been able to mitigate the serious mental health issues and have new tools, we are going to be able to safely relax the restrictions in most cases.” He added, “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.” After the post went viral and made headlines, Altman wrote a day later that OpenAI is “not the elected moral police of the world.”

For Context: Erotic content has long been restricted on artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots such as ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini. In August, OpenAI was sued by the parents of a California teenager who claimed their son committed suicide after ChatGPT provided him with specific guidance on how to kill himself. Last month, the Federal Trade Commission launched an inquiry into several tech companies, including OpenAI, Meta, Alphabet, and X, to determine how AI could negatively impact children and teens. Also, last month, Tucker Carlson (Right bias) pressed Altman on the death of an OpenAI whistleblower and other topics, including the ethical responsibility of AI, in an hour-long interview.

How The Media Covered It: Many media outlets across the spectrum mentioned “erotica” in their headlines. The New York Post (Lean Right) included a lot of context that was critical of OpenAI. It described the company as having worked up a public “furor” that it tried to address by “adding parental controls.” BBC News (Center) referenced a TechCrunch (Center) report from the spring that claimed OpenAI was allowing minors to create “graphic erotica,” which is in violation of British law. It also noted that OpenAI has not been profitable yet. The Guardian (Left) offered brief coverage and focused mainly on Altman’s statement.

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