Sam Altman’s promised “adult mode” for ChatGPT has been delayed twice since it was initially announced and expected to arrive late last year. Now we are starting to see some of the details as to the reason for the delays and just why the feature is proving so problematic and controversial withi the company. It is being reported that not only has there been an internal backlash to introducing erotic features, but advisors have warned OpenAI heads of the tremendous legal risks such a move will carry, including liability for any mental health harms and protecting minors.
“The feature’s potential to create unhealthy emotional dependence on ChatGPT and provide minors access to sexual conversations has been flagged by OpenAI’s advisory council on AI well-being.
Members of the council, which includes experts in psychology and cognitive neuroscience, expressed their concerns during a meeting with company representatives in January.
One member even warned that OpenAI could inadvertently create a “sexy suicide coach.””
Making a failsafe adult mode feature carries tremondous technical challenges, particularly acute given the current climate in which preventing minors from accessing harmful online material is a priority for governments everywhere. OpenAI has been testing an “age verification” guardrail that estimates a user’s age, similar to that which is being introduced to xAI’s Grok chatbot. However, OpenAI’s testing currently mistakes up to 12% of minors as adults-a figure that is not going to avoid legal suits nor the wrath of governments and child protection lobbyists.
Details of what “adult mode” consists of have also been shared, and it’s not good news for AI porn fans. It seems, as I predicted, that it will be very similar to Grok’s “spicy mode” rather than porn. An OpenAI spokesperson has pretty much stated this explicitly, saying that it would be “smut rather than pornography”. But what’s worse is that it appears that OpenAI may not even allow spicy AI image and video generation, and stick to only allowing “adult-themed text chats”.
There has been a lot of speculation that OpenAI are in some financial trouble and are desperate to increase revenue in order to justify the massive investments they are making in data centers and chips. If a watered-down “adult mode” is in the works, they may end up sitting in the uncomfortable middle between a more “spicy” xAI and a more “moral” Anthropic.
