OpenAI has just announced that ChatGPT will be getting freaky. That’s right, soon ChatGPT will be able to generate erotica for verified adults. Congratulations all, we’re living in a digital future where your digital assistant can read you a bedtime story that is not at all safe for bedtime. Basically, here’s what’s happening: if users go through the age verification process and prove that they’re legally an adult, they can enjoy adult content that is generated by AI, and then we can all walk around knowing that there are new and limitless possibilities to just how awkward things can get on the internet. And here, I just wanted it to help me with grocery lists.
OpenAI will be rolling out changes that will require users to verify their age in order to access certain “mature” features. According to Sam Altman (CEO of OpenAI), he believes that ChatGPT should be “treating adults like adults.” That sounds all fine and good, but it also sounds like the beginning of a very specific kind of roleplay prompt. The upcoming update is supposed to roll out with new content flexibility, including erotica, flirtation, and “romantic” interactions. Basically, ChatGPT might start telling you bedtime stories that come with a content warning, as long as you’ve jumped through the hoops to prove that you’re an adult.
So here’s where things could get a little tense. There are creators — human ones with bills to pay — who currently make a living selling erotica. Take OnlyFans, for example. There are creators on the adults-only platform who primarily sell access to erotica for their subscribers to enjoy in the form of stories or erotic scripts, and now they’re looking at a new competitor that grants instant access to limitless amounts of new content. If (or when) ChatGPT starts writing erotica, it won’t be factory jobs that the robots are swiping — everyone who contributes to the creation of smut will be feeling the sting. Some creators may use AI as a tool for organizing their ideas, proofreading, or to guard against plot holes, but others definitely see AI as a means of diluting the authenticity that fans and readers crave, especially in erotic fiction. And with how rapidly AI is getting better at what it does, it’s getting harder and harder for fans to discern the difference between work by an actual human author who is just as freaky as the rest of us, and a robot who is optimized to please the person typing into the prompt bar.
There are more issues at play than creators having to compete against a robot that doesn’t need things like sleep and days off. Altman has said that restrictions are being loosened not just around adult content, but for more emotional conversations too. On the surface, that sounds freeing — except for the pesky little fact that those restrictions were in place to prevent harmful or misleading output that could cause negative mental health responses in ChatGPT users. Many users were already treating ChatGPT like a therapist, confiding in the robot about feelings of loneliness, anxiety, or even debilitating depression. Now, imagine that AI giving you half-baked life advice that isn’t so much engineered to help you as it is to please you and keep you engaged with the device. In people who struggle with suicidal ideation, that opens up the door for some deadly repercussions.
Speaking of suicidal ideation, while planning out the rollback of certain restrictions in order to allow for more erotic and emotional conversations, OpenAI put together a new “well-being and AI” council. Great idea! Except that council doesn’t include a single suicide prevention professional. Considering the fact that millions of users have already vented to ChatGPT about suicidal thoughts and emotional distress, the absence of a suicide prevention specialist from a council that was formed for the specific purpose of safeguarding the mental health of AI users is… wild. You would think that when developing a chatbot specifically for the purposes of mature emotional connection, you might want to have someone on board who knows what action steps to take when someone indicates that they don’t want to be alive anymore. Welcome to the human side of “treating adults like adults.” Someone has to bear the responsibility for setting up safeguards for mental health, and those safeguards need to be put in place with the knowledge that suicide prevention is a crucial part of fostering connection — even if that connection is with a robot.
AI being able to generate erotica might fill a gap, but it also highlights a loneliness gap that can’t be fully assuaged by a robot, even one that can call you a “good girl.” There’s nothing wrong with an X-rated chat with a machine, but it is important to make sure that ChatGPT isn’t replacing genuine human connection and making the loneliness gap even wider. By all means, flirt with the robot! Enjoy to your heart’s content. Just remember: it’s programmed to like you, and people don’t work that way.
