OpenAI has announced it will widen its range of acceptable content for adult users, saying that erotica will soon be allowed on ChatGPT.

In a move to “treat adult users like adults,” CEO Sam Atlman said, ChatGPT will now be allowed to engage in conversations involving explicitly sexual scenarios and meanings.

The rollout of more features is set to come out in just a few weeks, Altman said in a post on X, which will see ChatGPT “respond in a very human-like way,” but clarified this was “only if [users] want it, not because we are usage-maxxing.”

The changes to ChatGPT’s “age-gating” will roll out in December, so verified adult users will still have to wait a couple more months before they can turn to the large language model for erotica.

The new changes also revolve around how ChatGPT deals with mental health issues – Altman said that “We made ChatGPT pretty restrictive to make sure we were being careful with mental health issues. We realise this made it less useful/enjoyable for 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.”

Earlier this year, OpenAI introduced some mental health changes to its models following the death of a US teenager who was an avid user of ChatGPT – his parents filed a wrongful death suit against the AI firm.

Recommended reading

• ChatGPT Introduces Parental Safety Controls – Too Little Too Late?
• ChatGPT Lies and Schemes to Avoid Shut Down, Research Finds
• ChatGPT Under Fire Over Harmful Advice to Teens

Since then, OpenAI has introduced more parental controls, which would require parents to connect their accounts to a child’s and ensure restrictions.

The new regime, which would enable adults access to more adult content on the chatbot, would require age checks of users to ensure those under the age of 18 cannot access the same restricted content.

ChatGPT has reportedly already been able to create erotica, which was generated by a registered minor, according to a TechCrunch report just this April.

According to research from the Center for Democracy and Technology, one in five students say that they or someone they know is romantically involved with an AI model, highlighting growing and real concern for how these publicly available AI chatbots are affecting children.

While Altman said that the AI firm is not “usage maxxing,” the new adult capabilities come after xAI introduced two sexually explicit chatbots.