OpenAI is easing ChatGPT's restrictions to let verified adult users generate erotic content, framing it as treating "adults like adults" to boost enjoyment after feedback that prior mental health safeguards made the tool overly restrictive. This follows safeguards like age-gating, a kid-friendly mode, and tech to predict user age, prompted by a teen suicide lawsuit and FTC scrutiny over AI's risks to youth. The update also allows more customizable, personality-driven responses.
While OpenAI touts this as empowerment, it reeks of cynical profit-chasing: loosening guardrails on addictive, boundary-blurring tech for "enjoyment" glosses over the ethical rot of normalizing AI-fueled erotica, which could erode human intimacy, exploit vulnerabilities in lonely users, and flood the digital ecosystem with unregulated synthetic smut—prioritizing clicks over the deeper societal decay it invites, especially when their "safeguards" hinge on flawed age tech that fails the vulnerable.
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Link to article: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/oct/14/openai-chatgpt-adult-erotic-content