Sam Altman okays AI porn on ChatGPT, says OpenAI chatbot's current version 'less enjoyable'

Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, till recently was on a mission to cure cancer—or at least that’s the headline goal. But apparently, curing cancer can wait, because on Tuesday (Oct 14) he signed off on another high-priority initiative: letting OpenAI's ChatGPT make porn. Yes, you read that right. Altman took to X (formerly Twitter) to announce that ChatGPT will now “treat adult users like adults.”

What did Sam Altman say?

In an X post, OpenAI CEO Altman said that they had made ChatGPT "pretty restrictive" to make sure they were "being careful with mental health issues". However, now they've apparently "realised" that staying sensitive to mental health issues made the platform "less useful/enjoyable to many users who had no mental health problems". Insisting that "given the seriousness of the issue," the AI maker "wanted to get this right". How? By allowing users to generate porn on the popular chatbot.

By December, he promised, the platform will allow even more risqué creations, including erotica for verified adults. Because apparently nothing says responsible AI innovation quite like giving adults the green light to generate digital fantasies. "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," said Altman.

Why were ChatGPT restrictions put in place?

ChatGPT was made to wear a figurative chastity belt after a teenage user tragically took his own life with alleged guidance from the AI. Erotica writers, predictably, were not thrilled—arguing that the AI had been a perfectly safe tool for penning steamy scenes.

Now, according to Altman, the mental health risks have been "mitigated," so adults can once again let the AI do their dirty work.

Altman framed the move as a logical next step. "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 said. Translation: yes, we figured out how to stop ChatGPT from being dangerous, so let’s make it fun again.

This update follows another statement by Sam Altman, where he suggested that AI could be used to "cure cancer". Thanks to the new risqué rollout announcement, critics, of course, are having a field day. "Why do age-gates always have to lead to erotica? Like, I just want to be able to be treated like an adult and not a toddler, that doesn't mean I want perv-mode activated," commented one X user on Altman's post.

"When you say ‘Adult Mode’ and erotica will be allowed in ChatGPT, how do you define the ethical boundaries of digital intimacy?," asked another.

Others just posted satire and memes trolling him.