It looks like ChatGPT porn is not going to become a thing at all now, according to a report in the Finanical Times which claims that the “adult mode” feature has been postponed indefinitely. First promised rather sheepishly by Sam Altman last Fall and initially slated to arrive before the end of 2025, it was then delayed to early this year and pushed back further to Q2 – as well as dialled back to promises only of “smutty” AI chat. Now it seems the company has finally accepted that the risks involved in a big tech company doing any kind of erotica is simply too great.
The main concerns were attachments that individuals would form with their ChatGPT AI companions, as well as the difficulty in ensuring that under 18s are prevented from accessing them and any other “erotic material”. Whilst OpenAI is widely regarded as facing a desperate need to increase revenue to justify the massive investments it is making, any backlash or legal cases that resulted from “adult mode” could be disastrous for the company. Only yesterday, Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta were hit with a $375 million penalty yesterday for providing misleading information to users about child safety.
What This Means for AI Porn
This is a blow, whichever way you look at it. This leaves only Elon Musk’s xAI and Grok as the only leading AI companies that are willing to risk even “spicy” features (and given the growing number of law suits it is being hit with, who knows for how much longer?). A “race” between xAI and OpenAI to see who could deliver the spiciest content, would certainly have progressed AI porn as well as normalized it. Some might say that it’s better if AI porn is left to the smaller dedicated AI porn sites, but having Big Tech on board would bring their influence and lobbying ability to fight any future regulation – particularly in the already worrying attempts to regulate or even outright ban romantic or erotic AI chatbots.
