OpenAI plans to allow a wider range of content, including erotica, on its popular chatbot ChatGPT as part of its push to “treat adult users like adults”, says its boss Sam Altman.<\/p>\n
In a post on X on Tuesday, Mr Altman said upcoming versions of the popular chatbot would enable it to behave in a more human-like way – “but only if you want it, not because we are usage maxxing”.<\/p>\n
The move, reminiscent of Elon Musk’s xAI recent introduction of two sexually explicit chatbots to Grok, could help OpenAI attract more paying subscribers.<\/p>\n
It is also likely to intensify pressure on lawmakers to introduce tighter restrictions on chatbot companions.<\/p>\n
OpenAI did not respond to the BBC’s requests for comment following Mr Altman’s post.<\/p>\n
Changes announced by the company come after it was sued earlier this year by parents of a US teen who took his own life.<\/p>\n
The lawsuit filed by Matt and Maria Raine, who are the parents of 16-year-old Adam Raine, was the first legal action accusing OpenAI of wrongful death.<\/p>\n
The Californian couple criticised the company’s parental controls – which it said were designed to promote healthier use of its chatbot – saying they did not go far enough.<\/p>\n
The family included chat logs between Adam, who died in April, and ChatGPT that show him explaining he has suicidal thoughts.<\/p>\n
Altman said that OpenAI previously made ChatGPT “pretty restrictive to make sure we were being careful with mental health issues”.<\/p>\n
“We realise 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,” Mr Altman said.<\/p>\n
He said the company has now been able to mitigate the serious mental health risks and have new tools allowing it to “safely relax the restrictions in most cases”.<\/p>\n
“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,” he said.<\/p>\n
Critics say OpenAI’s decision to allow erotica on the platform shows the need for more regulation at the federal and state levels.<\/p>\n
“How are they going to make sure that children are not able to access the portions of ChatGPT that are adult-only and provide erotica?” said Jenny Kim, a partner at the law firm Boies Schiller Flexner. “Open AI, like most of big tech in this space, is just using people like guinea pigs.”<\/p>\n
Ms Kim is involved in a lawsuit against Meta that claims the company’s Instagram’s algorithm harms the mental health of teen users.<\/p>\n
“We don’t even know if their age gating is going to work,” she said. <\/p>\n
In April, TechCrunch reported<\/a> that OpenAI was allowing accounts in which a user had registered as a minor to generate graphic erotica.<\/p>\n OpenAI said at the time that the company was rolling out a fix to limit such content.<\/p>\n