<div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>ChatGPT is about to get a lot hornier. Sam Altman, chief executive of the artificial intelligence chatbot's parent company, says it's about allowing adults more freedom to use AI how they want.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>But experts from a range of fields, including OpenAI's own wellbeing panel, have raised a range of concerns about what it will mean for mental health and child safety.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>ChatGPT is set to enable "erotica for verified adults" next month but there are still plenty of questions about what exactly that means and what the consequences might be.</span></div></div><div><div id="adspot-mobile-medium"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h2><span>What is 'erotic mode'?</span></h2></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>It's not clear exactly what OpenAI is planning here. Altman said it would be rolling out age restrictions to allow the ChatGPT to do "even more, like erotica for verified adults". </span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>He pitched it less as a specific "erotic mode" than as a way of granting more freedom in the company's "treat adult users like adults" principle.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>That leaves the door open for a lot of possibilities. It's not known if the changes will allow the model to write erotic fiction, engage in back-and-forth sexual conversations or even create an entire persona users could effectively "sext" with. </span></div></div><div><div class="OUTBRAIN" data-reactroot="" data-src="//www.9news.com.au/technology/ai-erotica-chatgpt-introduces-erotica-in-december-everything-we-know/d0735042-1903-4901-b5e1-5b910ab6ced6" data-widget-id="AR_5"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>OpenAI didn't respond to questions about what the changes would be like beyond referring to Altman's X posts announcing the feature and stressing the importance of teen wellbeing.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h2><span>Why the change? </span></h2></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Put simply, people want it. A 2024 Washington Post analysis of almost 200,000 English-language conversations with AI chatbots found more than 7 per cent of conversations were about sex. </span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>A Harvard Business Review piece from April this year analysing Reddit posts and online articles didn't specifically delve into erotic but found therapy and companionship – "ongoing social and emotional connection, sometimes with a romantic dimension" – was the number one use case for generative AI. </span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Altman says it's all about allowing users more freedom.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Senior lecturer in Computing and ​Information at Cardiff Metropolitan University Simon Thorne suggests there's another motive: profit.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"This is a significant departure from what they have been doing, which is mostly attempting to keep what they might view as harmful information away from the user," he tells 9news.com.au</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"Whether it's about erotic or of a sexual nature, or whether it's making a pipe bomb, or whatever it might be, there's obvious, obvious things that you don't necessarily want your platform to be responsible for providing. </span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"So this is obviously a big change. I would suggest that, you know, this is because they are losing huge amounts of money."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h2><span>So what's the problem?</span></h2></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Tech figures, mental health experts, a former OpenAI product safety lead and a member of the company's "Expert Council on Well-Being and AI" have all raised concerns about the announcement. </span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>They range from difficulties keeping children away to worries about mental health – already a concern for heavy users without introducing erotica – and driving users towards increasingly extreme sexual fantasies.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>AI researcher Steven Adler, who led product safety at OpenAI, wrote an </span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/28/opinion/openai-chatgpt-safety.html"><span>op-ed for The New York Times</span></a><span> saying he didn't trust his former boss Altman's claims the company had "been able to mitigate the serious mental health issues" and relax restrictions.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"If the company really has strong reason to believe it's ready to bring back erotica on its platforms, it should show its work," he said, pointing to a </span><a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/26078522-raine-vs-openai-complaint/"><span>lawsuit</span></a><span> claiming ChatGPT helped a 16-year-old boy suicide.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"AI is increasingly becoming a dominant part of our lives, and so are the technology's risks that threaten users' lives."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Professor Munmun De Choudhury, a computer scientist who's been exploring how generative AI and other emerging technologies transform how people connect online, is a member of OpenAI's Expert Council on Well-Being and AI.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>She tells 9news.com.au she hadn't been consulted on the erotica rollout, which was announced the day after the council.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>She says Altman's claims about mitigating mental health concerns lacked transparency and independent evidence.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"Mental health vulnerabilities in AI interactions are not issues that can be fully 'mitigated' through technical fixes alone – they require ongoing oversight, transparency, and validation by experts in psychology and digital safety," she says.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h2><span>Won't somebody please think of the children?</span></h2></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>OpenAI stresses this feature will only be for adults, saying it's building an age prediction system to understand whether someone is under 18 or not.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>It says if the system is unsure, it will default back to the under-18 experience and give adults other ways to prove their age.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>But there are major concerns with the effectiveness of existing age-gating and age-prediction tech and OpenAI's version hasn't been seen publicly.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Thorne says the recent introduction of the Online Safety Act in the UK, which imposes similar restrictions on a range of sites, shows how easily the systems can be fooled, sometimes with something as simple as a printed photo of an older person.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"Do I think they care? Not particularly, no," he says.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"They're going to, I think, say, 'Look, we've done our bit. We've put the kind of age control up front.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"Unless somebody makes them care."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>De Choudhury says robust age verification and clear opt-in consent are among several "non-negotiable guardrails" OpenAI must implement.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h2><span>Are there concerns for adults?</span></h2></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Even if OpenAI manages to block children, there are worries about what the widespread availability of AI-generated erotica on tap could mean for consenting adults too. </span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>In a world of essentially unlimited internet pornography – and associated addiction risks – on the surface it's hard to make an argument that allowing people to use a chatbot for erotica could pose much of a problem.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>But Thorne and De Choudhury both raise concerns with the interactivity of AI systems and their capacity for reinforcing or heightening ideas.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Thorne says while pornography or human-designed erotic literature is relatively "static", a chatbot is "very specific to the individual".</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>De Choudhury says allowing erotic interactions with chatbots risks deepening parasocial or dependency-based "relationships" that already pose mental health concerns.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"When intimacy and sexual expression are introduced, users may form stronger emotional attachments to an entity that cannot reciprocate or maintain boundaries in human terms," she says.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"This can distort expectations of real relationships, exacerbate loneliness, and even discourage people from seeking human connection or professional help."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h2><span>What happens if my naughty chat leaks?</span></h2></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Privacy is another huge issue. Thorne says the change will give OpenAI a "very detailed data set, probably the likes of which have never been seen before".</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"If that information gets into the wrong hands, you know it could be extremely damaging to people, and also, you know it can be exploited to target people even more individually.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>De Choudhury says strong data privacy and non-retention policies must govern all sexual or intimate exchanges to prevent misuse or leaks.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h2><span>How does OpenAI say it's safe? </span></h2></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Altman insists the planned change is safe and characterises it as just one aspect of increased freedom he wants to give users, saying "allowing a lot of freedom for people to use AI in the ways that they want is an important part of our mission".</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"We are making a decision to prioritise safety over privacy and freedom for teenagers. And we are not loosening any policies related to mental health," he posted to X in October. </span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"This is a new and powerful technology, and we believe minors need significant protection."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>He insists nothing that causes harm to others will be allowed and that ChatGPT will be able to behave differently for users experiencing "mental health crises".</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"Without being paternalistic we will attempt to help users achieve their long-term goals," he said. "But 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."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>OpenAI says teen wellbeing is a top priority.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"We have safeguards in place today, such as surfacing crisis hotlines, guiding how our models respond to sensitive requests, and nudging for breaks during long sessions, and we're continuing to strengthen them," a spokesperson tells 9news.com.au.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"We recently rolled out </span><a href="https://openai.com/index/introducing-parental-controls/"><span>parental controls</span></a><span>, developed with expert input, so families can decide what works best in their homes, and we're building toward a long-term age-prediction system to help tailor experiences appropriately."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h2><span>Has this been done before?</span></h2></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>There are a slew of AI companies offering erotica and erotic functions in everything from text-based stories and personas to images and video, and there are widespread reports among users that ChatGPT would generate erotica with minimal effort as recently as this year. </span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>My Spicy Vanilla founder Andrei Tolocica says his platform started by generating date night ideas before pivoting to AI erotica, and now counts about 60,000 monthly users, including couples therapists.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"Women love reading erotica, but now also men start to read erotica," he tells 9news.com.au.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"And this is something nice that is happening, and people are getting used to it, because they understand that porn can be damaging for them and when we're speaking about erotica, it's just in your imagination, like you can be getting into it smoother, and it's not that aggressive on your mind. </span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"And plus, when they are generating custom erotica with their partner, it's again, like, strengthens their relationship."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/how-to-follow-9news-digital/29855bb1-ad3d-4c38-bc25-3cb52af1216f"><em><strong><span>DOWNLOAD THE 9NEWS APP</span></strong></em></a><em><strong><span>: Stay across all the latest in breaking news, sport, politics and the weather via our news app and get notifications sent straight to your smartphone. 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