You may never get to experience ChatGPT’s adult mode (not that you wanted to, of course). OpenAI has confirmed to the Financial Times (FT) that it is putting the project on hold as it shifts focus toward its core products.
As PCMag reports, this news comes after The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported that some of the company’s staffers and advisors were concerned about the negative impact the erotic AI could have on users. At the time, OpenAI told the WSJ that its adult mode would simply be “smut” and not pornography. Yeah, thanks for clarifying.
For the time being, it’s unclear if OpenAI will ever roll out adult mode. For now, the company wants more time to research the potentially harmful effects of sexually explicit chats and the emotional attachments they may create, a spokesperson tells the FT.
Investors weren’t excited about the prospect, either, two sources reportedly told the FT. Elon Musk-owned X left Grok largely unchecked, but the move backfired as the chatbot began generating sexually explicit images of users – specifically underage girls – without their consent. This led to bans of the platform across multiple regions, and xAI eventually had to rein in the chatbot.
Meanwhile, OpenAI is also facing lawsuits for encouraging mentally unhealthy conversations on ChatGPT. And don’t forget, rival Meta also recently lost two court cases – one with YouTube – related to the negative effects of social media and child exploitation.
This is the second major product that OpenAI has retreated from in recent weeks. Earlier this month, the company announced it would discontinue its Sora AI video-generation app so it could use the compute power required for Sora on other projects. Given the popularity of Grok’s anime porn chatbot, it stands to reason that ChatGPT’s adult mode also would have consumed a lot of compute, too.
It’s been a stressful time for CEO Sam Altman and Open AI. A few weeks ago, a senior OpenAI executive reportedly told employees that the company would prioritize productivity tools over “side quests” going forward. Late last year, Altman also issued a “code red” following the launch of Google’s Gemini 3. It has since had to contend with the rapid growth of Anthropic’s Claude (with all those billions of dollars in investments from Amazon and Google), too.
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