OpenAI Abandons ChatGPT's Erotic Mode (techcrunch.com)
- Reference: 0181109948
- News link: https://slashdot.org/story/26/03/26/2239249/openai-abandons-chatgpts-erotic-mode
- Source link: https://techcrunch.com/2026/03/26/openai-abandons-yet-another-side-quest-chatgpts-erotic-mode/
> The [2]proposed "adult mode," which CEO Sam Altman first floated in October, had inspired considerable controversy from [3]tech watchdog groups as well as from [4]OpenAI's own staff . In January, a meeting between company executives and its council of advisers got heated, with one of the advisers cautioning that OpenAI could be in the process of developing a "sexy suicide coach," The Wall Street Journal [5]previously reported .
>
> Amidst all of the criticism, the release of the feature was [6]delayed multiple times . FT [7]notes that the erotic feature now has no timeline for release. When reached for comment by TechCrunch, an OpenAI spokesperson said the company had "nothing further to add."
[1] https://techcrunch.com/2026/03/26/openai-abandons-yet-another-side-quest-chatgpts-erotic-mode/
[2] https://slashdot.org/story/25/02/14/2156202/openai-eases-content-restrictions-for-chatgpt-with-new-grown-up-mode
[3] https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/open-ai-backlash-erotica-content/3964802/
[4] https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/28/opinion/openai-chatgpt-safety.html
[5] https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/openai-adult-mode-chatgpt-f9e5fc1a
[6] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/mar/09/openai-delays-adult-mode-for-chatgpt-to-focus-on-work-of-higher-priority
[7] https://www.ft.com/content/de9bf0af-b241-424f-8229-5870b1c0d93d?syn-25a6b1a6=1
They misheard the real announcement (Score:5, Funny)
We said that we will abandon ChatGPT's neurotic mode. What is it with these people?
Looks like panic to me (Score:3)
The last few weeks, they seem to try to actually get closer to making a profit, but apparently with no clear strategy or goal in mind.
Re: (Score:2)
More like the total opposite, I'd say.
I can't imagine what's the business value of having ChatGPT doing a BloodNinja impression. It's not good for PR, it'd risk exclusion in serious environments, school and the like, it'd risk legal trouble, the list goes on. The potential for trouble far outweighs any possibly benefit, which is what? There's only downsides because it'd go wrong in some way sooner rather than later.
No, doubling down on serious, well paying uses and removing controversial ideas of little wor
Re: (Score:1)
> No, doubling down on serious, well paying uses...
seems like they need to invent a few of those
Re: (Score:2)
More like you are totally delulu...
I think it's more about resources (Score:2)
So companies opened literally thousands of data centers that use huge amounts of electricity and water both of which are increasingly in short supply.
Now they have basically unlimited money because they are dangling the possibility of freeing the Epstein class from their long-standing dependency on us filthy filthy peasants.
But the problem is they don't quite have unlimited power and people have noticed how terrible the data centers are for their communities so they can't just keep building them.
Re: (Score:2)
This. My take is that OpenAI started as a lab of sorts, but then their research started showing real results. But, Altman isn't really a great businessman...look at his Wikipedia page. It's basically Y-combinator, get first investment opportunities in a plethora of start-ups, some pay-out, rising tide you are rich. As a visionary he sucks...this erotic business is almost certainly his idea. As a leader he sucks, his previous leadership fired him and walked out, only to be reinstated by Micro$oft to
Dirty Sam still Dirty (Score:2)
Sorry, Sam, this won't change anything.
We call you "Dirty Sam" because you are a horrible person, not because of your porn side hussle.
What dribbling mouth breather... (Score:1)
... ever thought this was a good idea in the first place?? Arn't the tech companies in enough of the brown stuff as it is without realtime AI porn being added to the mix? FFS, fire them before they do any more harm.
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah, what kind of idiot would think of using the internet to make money on porn?
Best to leave that market (Score:2)
To âoeXâ.
Give it a few years. (Score:2, Funny)
Once AI takes all the jobs the prospect of a sexy suicide coach will be appealing not only to investors, but also to governments as a subsidized way to euthanize poor people. They should really just keep this concept in their back pocket until the mass layoffs pick up steam, then roll it back out.
AI-gen adult content (Score:3)
This seems like a great area for this technology. Isn't it the feminist and the evangelicals that both say porn is bad and that it prey's upon vulnerable women? With the use of this technology, no people need be harmed from working in the industry. This enables folks to still consume the content but without people having to do the performances.
I'm more a freedom type person. If people want to do sex work for a living, why not? So long as it's regulated like every other industry and the workers taxed on the income, what's the problem? I'm sure many folks would be quite frustrated at losing this job opportunity.
The extremist in the conversation would do away with all sexual material and work while the rest of us can see the grey area and at the end of the day, shouldn't adults be allowed to make their own choices for themselves?
Re: (Score:2)
> I'm more a freedom type person. If people want to do sex work for a living, why not? So long as it's regulated like every other industry and the workers taxed on the income, what's the problem?
If you just put in the tip there is no income tax.
Feminists don't hate porn, misandrists do! (Score:2)
> This seems like a great area for this technology. Isn't it the feminist and the evangelicals that both say porn is bad and that it prey's upon vulnerable women? With the use of this technology, no people need be harmed from working in the industry. This enables folks to still consume the content but without people having to do the performances.
> I'm more a freedom type person. If people want to do sex work for a living, why not? So long as it's regulated like every other industry and the workers taxed on the income, what's the problem? I'm sure many folks would be quite frustrated at losing this job opportunity.
> The extremist in the conversation would do away with all sexual material and work while the rest of us can see the grey area and at the end of the day, shouldn't adults be allowed to make their own choices for themselves?
Porn is irrelevant to feminism. People who oppose legal porn for non-religious reasons have issues with sex....no other reason. It's like drinking. I don't like to drink, some do. However, I don't go around claiming people who enjoy drinking legally are harming women because I am uncomfortable around drunk assholes. I just accept they're into something I find disgusting and not good for me, personally. Porn is a profession with a market. It's no more degrading than driving an uber or cleaning someone
Sex Fantasies are just too unsafe! (Score:2)
Due to safety concerns, we're going to abandon the idea of erotic AI fiction, and re-focus our efforts on powering mass surveillance and autonomous weapons.
Probably didn't want to be blacklisted by Visa. (Score:2)
Such things as AI porn is known to be a subject that the credit card companies like to blacklist. But using those same cards to buy a gun is all fine and dandy.
Re: (Score:2)
Because our corporate overlords spend too much of their time at places like the Bohemian Grove. Throw in some twink porn and they will be suitably distracted.
Sexy Suicide coach? (Score:1)
If we consider that at the same time Reddit is going to be having user-validation issues, it feels like this is a match made in heaven (for the rest of us).
Herbert was right (Score:2)
The Butlerian Jihad cannot come soon enough. Machines should be useful tools serving us, where our emotional connections to them are still based on tool-user and tool.
Re: (Score:2)
Evidently, you have never seen a mechanic screaming at his socket wrench for rounding the head of a bolt off.
Obligitory (Score:2)
Futurama warned us about this twenty-five years ago: [1]Don't Date Robots! [youtube.com]
See the episode " [2]I Dated a Robot [wikipedia.org]".
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrrADTN-dvg
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Dated_a_Robot
Wrong strategy (Score:3)
I support AI research and believe that it will help us solve previously intractable problems in science, engineering, medicine and maybe even economics.
I also believe that OpenAI has made a series of tactical errors that's turning the public against AI.
While other labs kept the tech in the lab, OpenAI released it to the general public. This resulted in excitement and a few fun things, but also a tremendous amount of slop and scams. Meanwhile, pundits and hypemongers constantly and publicly claimed that AI will replace all jobs. When all the public sees is slop, scams and fear of job loss, the angry response is not surprising.
Then, OpenAI wanted to continue their push into pop culture by introducing "adult mode". This waste of electricity serves no useful purpose, but it amplified OpenAI's push into pop culture.
Now, it appears that they realize that they made have made a bad choice, and are dropping adult mode. This is a good step, but they need to go further.
The proper use of AI is as a tool, not as a friend, lover or therapist, and especially not as an addiction
Eww.... (Score:2)
Just reading that - "ChatGPT's Erotic Mode" - felt slimy and gross.
That's it... (Score:2)
OpenAI is definitely headed for bankruptcy. Porn has always been the thing that turbo-charged technological advances. Do you really think VCRs and high-speed Internet were invented for any other reason? :)
No wonder (Score:3)
Extremely unsafe reputationally, and extremely dubious in terms of profits.
Re:No wonder (Score:5, Insightful)
I honestly think it's bizarre that these companies have more to fear legally and in terms of backslash in letting a chatbot write down erotic texts than they do about the fact that they constantly alter how models work and how the censorship filter works mid-month after people have already paid based on the free trial.
We apparently live in a world where a bot writing down sexy stories is a bigger concern than blatant bait-and-switch.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Based on the description it also includes images and maybe video. So deepfake porn of people without their consent, and without adequate regard of age.
Yes, they toss some stuff into system prompt to 'promise to be a good boy', but as an *enforcement* strategy, that's been demonstrably a poor mechanism that gets worse with nuance.
Writes someone with no kids (Score:2)
"We apparently live in a world where a bot writing down sexy stories is a bigger concern than blatant bait-and-switch."
Yeah, it is. When/if you reproduce your priorities will change.
Re: (Score:2)
"Spawning crotchgoblins doesn't give you any special insight."
Wrong, it changes your perspective. When you're out of short trousers you may understand that.
"Raise your damn kids and stop expecting the internet to do it for ya."
Whoooshh....
I have 2 kids...not concerned + can't ban cars (Score:2)
> "We apparently live in a world where a bot writing down sexy stories is a bigger concern than blatant bait-and-switch."
> Yeah, it is. When/if you reproduce your priorities will change.
I have 2 kids. We've had many conversations about sex. I've told them they're not allowed to watch porn or consume inappropriate content. However, I also educate them as to why they should wait until they're 18 and frankly, when they want to talk about sex, I make it a boring academic discussion about science and reproduction...so instead of "ooh nice titties"...the conversation goes to lactation and hormones produced and how babies rely on mother's milk during their early years. Sex isn't naughty or sca
Re: (Score:2)
Some parents don't know or don't care what their kids do and this would be just another thing to screw with their kids heads.
"We don't go around banning cars to nerf the world for our children."
No, but we do ban drugs, don't sell kids cigarettes and have a minimum age for drinking for a reason - they're children, not small adults, they don't think the same way as adults and don't yet have those mental tripwires that stop them doing stupid stuff so we have to stop them doing it.
Re: (Score:1)
You see it everywhere. We live in a world where people are either obsessed with sex, terrified by it, and often both. Republicans and Democrats are our mainstream (!!!?!) parties, who combined, get over 90% of the vote every single time.
The voters have been united and clear: sex is the top government priority. There literally isn't anything Americans would rather see the government poke their noses into. Sure, some other thing are still deemed important, but they aren't as important.
Re: (Score:2)
More likely the generated crap wasn't worth the money, so nobody made any purchases.
I doubt that Onlyfans under Sam Slopman would have worked any better.
Re: (Score:2)
The vast majority of their users are people who don't pay anything. I very much doubt there are many people willing to pay for generated erotic fantasies. If you want to pay for actual people, there's already OnlyFans, Chaturbate, etc.
they could of made it pay pre text SEXCHAT + your (Score:2)
they could of made it pay pre text SEXCHAT + your message to 6969 for chatGPT sex talk all meeages cost 0.99 per text + your phone carriers SMS fees.
Re: (Score:2)
> Extremely unsafe reputationally, and extremely dubious in terms of profits.
Especially for an administration who's priority is to eliminate pornography as an evil to society and why the US isn't having more babies and getting divorced way too often.
It's in the book. Everything Trump has done has followed Project 2025 (and now Project 2026) book. Getting rid of pornographic materials is pretty much the first chapter.