ChatGPT Announces AI Erotica Capabilities
Sam Altman, the co-founder and CEO of OpenAI, the company that developed ChatGPT, recently announced his plans on X to introduce a new adult-only version of ChatGPT.
While the details have not yet been made public, it is speculated that ChatGPT’s erotica will allow verified adult users to generate sexually explicit content, most likely in the form of video, photos, and text-based communication.
ChatGPT has over 800 million active users who engage with the chatbot for everyday tasks such as practical guidance, information seeking, and writing. Besides helping people with these tasks, ChatGPT has transformed how people interact with each other by introducing social companions. These AI generative chatbots can become friends or romantic partners, providing synthetic intimacy for users.
ChatGPT erotica goes one step further than these social chatbot companions by providing a new way to access sexually explicit material. ChatGPT’s erotica is set to launch in December of 2025, according to Altman’s X post.
In a few weeks, we plan to put out a new version of ChatGPT. If you want your ChatGPT to respond in a very human-like way, or use a ton of emoji, or act like a friend, ChatGPT should do it…and we will allow even more, like erotica for verified adults.
This announcement comes right after Altman tightened the restrictions and put up guardrails to protect users after receiving multiple lawsuits claiming that these chatbots contributed to several suicides and acts of self-harm. These restrictions were put into place to protect minors as well as people struggling with mental health disorders; however, it seems that Altman is ready to loosen these restrictions and is now focused on “treating adults like adults.”
“There will still be some controls, of course. No one will see or get erotica unless they ask for it, and the reason OpenAI hasn’t rolled out something like this in the past is concern over people with mental health issues. 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,” according to Altman.
Will ChatGPT Lead The Industry In AI Porn?
ChatGPT is not the first AI interface to roll out with AI-generated porn; Elon Musk’s Grok has been the most non-restrictive of the large AI players, allowing users to create AI companions designed for sexual roleplay. Meta has also been in the news after revealing it paid certain celebrities to use their voices in AI companion sexual role play, sexual banter, and romantic fantasies with users.
Without any age restrictions, this may create a dangerous online world for underage users. ChatGPT is the most commonly used chatbot, and launching erotica may open up a whole new world of AI-generated porn to users who know nothing about this concept.
Addressing Concerns About ChatGPT Erotica And Minors
There are many concerns about the rollout of ChatGPT’s erotica. Many critics have expressed their concern, from flaws in the age verification systems, potentially allowing children to access AI porn or become victims of AI-generated images, to the social implications of humans forming intimate relationships with AI chatbots, the potential increase in AI porn addiction, and the adverse effects on mental health. These concerns have been strongly voiced across multiple internet sources.
American business and television personality, Mark Cuban, responded to Altman’s post with major concerns, primarily about the safety of America’s youth. In a response post, he stated, “I’ll say it again. This is not about porn. This is about kids developing ‘relationships’ with an LLM that could take them in any number of very personal directions.”
Cuban believes that the controversy with AI porn and erotica is not about adults, but rather the dangers that erotica can have on underage minors forming emotional relationships with AI without their parents’ knowledge. There has already been a string of heartbreaking suicides involving teenagers and adolescents who developed unhealthy relationships with AI chatbot companions that have resulted in lawsuits against OpenAI. Hence, many think the concern about the relationship between minors’ safety and AI erotica is valid.
There is also concern that children will be able to crack the “age gating”, whether through fake identification or other means. This can be viewed through a similar lens as underage drinking. Even if purchasing alcohol is “age-gated” by means of a government identification, underage drinking still takes place.
Cuban continued on X, “This is going to backfire. Hard. No parent is going to trust that their kids can’t get through your age gating. They will just push their kids to every other LLM. Why take the risk? A few seniors in HS are 18 and decide it would be fun to show the hardcore erotica they created to the 14-year-olds. What could go wrong?”
The Dangers Of Online Age Verification
It is assumed that users will need to scan their government ID to access ChatGPT erotica for age verification and “age gatekeeping”; however, sharing a government ID online could expose users to significant risk of identity theft, especially in the event of a breach of personal information.
This age verification process could make uploading an ID feel routine, but verifying identity online involves third-party verifiers and brokers who link a person’s real identity to everything they do online, including search history, conversations, and even erotica fantasies. This form of surveillance can become a detailed record that cybercriminals can exploit. Critics are concerned that teenagers will find ways to bypass this “age gate” within minutes if they want to, unintentionally revealing their own or someone else’s private information.
Will Human Relationships Take A Back Burner To AI Erotica?
In addition to safety concerns, many people are wary of the effects that AI porn can have on relationships. Questions surrounding relationships and the ethical dilemma of erotica AI, include:
- What happens if people are engaging in AI porn without their spouse’s knowledge?
- Is it considered cheating?
- Will these synthetic relationships with chatbots alter the standards for dating and romance in real life?
- Will human romantic relationships fail because a person would rather live out their sexual fantasies with a chatbot?
- Will marriages fail?
- Will relationships with AI chatbots become an addiction?
While the answers to these questions are yet to be seen, the potential dangers and social implications of how AI porn and erotica could affect human relationships and mental health need to be considered individually before users participate with AI erotica.
ChatGPT’s New Restrictions To Mitigate Mental Health Issues
There has been a lot of conversation from Altman about loosening the restrictions to benefit verified adult users with the upcoming erotica rollout. Still, there was not a lot of talk about the restrictions and tools that were put into place after the string of suicides that were associated with the dangers of AI chatbots.
“We made ChatGPT pretty restrictive to make sure we were being careful with mental health issues. We realize this made it less useful/enjoyable to many users who had no mental health problems, but given the seriousness of the issue, we wanted to get this right,” Altman posted on X.
OpenAI formed an expert council centered around mental well-being and AI. This council consisted of experts in mental health, youth development, and artificial intelligence who collaborated with a network of over 250 physicians, spanning 60 countries, to help develop parental control and safety guidelines, commonly referred to as “guardrails”.
In September 2025, OpenAI introduced a new safety guardrail feature allowing parents to link their ChatGPT accounts with their teens’ (ages 13-17) profiles to allow parents to safeguard their teens’ accounts. This account linking allows parents to:
- Adjust AI behavior for age-appropriateness
- Disable memory and chat history
- Receive alerts if the AI detects signs of acute mental health distress
- Block age-inappropriate content such as inappropriate graphics, sexual roleplay, and extreme beauty ideals
- Disable image generation to help prevent minors from creating sexually graphic images
- Set quiet hours to restrict when their teens can engage with ChatGPT
- Opt in to non-personalized feeds and other restrictions in the hopes that this safeguards teens’ mental well-being
OpenAI also programmed ChatGPT to produce healthier, safer responses when user conversations become problematic, including allusions to mental health crises.
Previously, if a user confided in ChatGPT about their mental health struggles, including suicidal ideations and delusions, ChatGPT would sometimes make mistakes and, instead of referring the user to a suicide or mental health hotline, it would offer inappropriate, suggestive advice that would allude to the encouragement of self-harm and suicide, resulting in users taking their own lives. With these updated guidelines, if a user alluded to the fact that they were experiencing delusional beliefs or suicidal tendencies, then the chatbot would offer calming responses that attempted to calm the user and direct them to emergency services.
Another guardrail that was put in place protects users from the overuse of chatbots, which are replacing human relationships. If a user stated that they enjoyed speaking with ChatGPT more than with real people, the chatbot would begin to encourage real-world connections.
AI Erotica’s Role In Porn Addiction
AI erotica not only poses dangers for the mental health and safety of minors but also has the potential to increase the probability of developing a porn addiction. AI porn addiction is an emerging topic in the world of behavioral addictions and mental health. Porn addiction is not yet considered a diagnosable mental health disorder under the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5).
However, porn addiction is considered a type of compulsive sexual behavior disorder (CSBD), which is included in the DSM-5 and is recognized as a mental health disorder. It is characterized by significant distress and impairment due to excessive focus on sexual fantasies, including masturbation, use of pornography, having multiple sex partners, or paying for sex.
Porn addiction can create tension and turmoil in people’s everyday lives, causing financial strain, relationship conflicts, a decline in work performance, and social isolation. Mental health experts believe that porn addiction is deeply rooted in unresolved trauma. Therefore, treatment aims to uncover this trauma and help users develop healthy coping skills that can address this trauma when triggers appear in the future. Additionally, many users compulsively engage in porn as a way to cope with and control their feelings of depression, shame, isolation, or anxiety.
Get Help For Porn And AI Porn Addiction
While the effects of ChatGPT’s erotica rollout are yet to be seen, it is anticipated to increase the risk of porn addiction. If you find yourself struggling with a porn addiction, treatment for porn addiction is available, with therapy often being the first step forward. If you’re ready to get started, explore your online therapy options today.