In the increasingly competitive generative artificial intelligence (AI) market, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has sparked controversy by announcing plans to provide adult content. Altman stated that OpenAI is not a global “morality police” and that the company will handle users with mental health issues differently.
Altman, the developer of the AI chatbot ChatGPT, took to the social media platform X on Wednesday to clarify the remarks he had made the previous day. He emphasized, “We are not the elected moral police of the world. In the same way that society differentiates other appropriate boundaries (R-rated movies, for example) we want to do a similar thing here.” He argued, “As AI becomes more important in people’s lives, allowing a lot of freedom for people to use AI in the ways that they want is an important part of our mission.”
On Tuesday, Altman announced via X that a new version of ChatGPT would be released in the coming weeks, promising more natural and friendly conversations. He stated, “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.”
Altman explained that ChatGPT was initially designed with a limited response range to prevent misuse by individuals with mental health issues, but they “realized this made it less useful/enjoyable to many users who had no mental health problems.” In his additional clarification on Wednesday, he noted that the principle of treating adult users like adults “doesn’t apply across the board, of course.” He added, “For example, we will still not allow things that cause harm to others, and we will treat users who are having mental health crises very different from users who are not.”
This move follows that of OpenAI’s competitor, xAI, allowed its AI chatbot to engage in sexual conversations in July. The following month, they added a Spicy Mod for their AI chatbot’s video feature, enabling paid users to create adult content.
The U.S. political news outlet Axios noted that while the entry of OpenAI into the adult content arena, following xAI, may help increase paid chatbot users, it could face social and regulatory pressures in the future.
In August, attorneys general from 44 U.S. states sent warning letters to 12 AI chatbot companies, urging them to strengthen child protection measures. Furthermore, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently demanded that seven AI chatbot companies, including OpenAI and xAI, submit data related to the impact of chatbots on children.
