OpenAI just announced its biggest content policy shift yet - ChatGPT will start generating erotic content for verified adults this December. CEO Sam Altman's recent social media posts signal the end of the company's restrictive approach to mature content, potentially reshaping how millions interact with AI and opening new revenue streams around "emotional commodification."
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman just dropped the company's most controversial announcement yet. In a recent social media post, he confirmed that ChatGPT will soon allow "erotica for verified adults" as part of a December update that enables "even more" types of content generation.
This represents a complete about-face for the startup. Just last year, OpenAI was sending cease-and-desist letters to developers building X-rated AI companions using their models. Now they're embracing what Altman calls a "freedom for adults" philosophy, declaring his company is "not the elected moral police of the world."
The timing isn't coincidental. While OpenAI has publicly resisted building engagement-driven features, the adult content market represents untapped revenue potential. "It's normalizing people sharing very intimate information with chatbots," warns Julie Carpenter, a Cal Poly research fellow who studies AI and human attachment. "Sharing your innermost thoughts, desires, sexual proclivities, fetishes, adventures."
The policy shift comes as competitors like xAI already offer erotic anime companions, something Altman specifically cited as an example of growth tactics OpenAI had avoided. But that restraint appears to be ending as the AI race intensifies.
"People have been trying to talk dirty to machines since forever," notes Kate Devlin, a King's College London professor researching digital sexuality. "We had this with voice assistants as well. So this isn't surprising - they're giving the people what they want."
But Altman's careful word choice of "erotica" over more explicit terms like pornography reveals the company's marketing strategy. "Sam Altman kept saying erotica, but that's very vague," Carpenter observes. "His archaic choice of words latches on to the literary, artistic nature of human-written erotica. This may seem more palatable to the public."
