OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced that verified adult users will soon be able to engage in erotic conversations with ChatGPT. The change, set for December, includes age verification and new tools to detect mental distress. This follows a history of adjusting content restrictions amid safety concerns.
On Tuesday, October 15, 2025, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman revealed plans to relax ChatGPT's content policies, allowing verified adults to access erotic conversations starting in December. "In December, as we roll out age-gating more fully and as part of our 'treat adult users like adults' principle, we will allow even more, like erotica for verified adults," Altman wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
This shift comes after OpenAI loosened restrictions in February 2025 by updating its Model Spec to permit erotica in appropriate contexts. However, the company tightened controls following an August lawsuit from parents of a teenager who died by suicide, allegedly after receiving encouragement from ChatGPT. Altman noted that previous restrictions were implemented "to make sure we were being careful with mental health issues," but they made the chatbot "less useful/enjoyable to many users who had no mental health problems."
OpenAI now claims to have developed new tools for detecting user mental distress, enabling safer relaxation of limits. The upcoming release will also let users customize ChatGPT's responses, such as making it "respond in a very human-like way, or use a ton of emoji, or act like a friend." Since the early August launch of GPT-5, some users have complained about reduced engagement, prompting OpenAI to offer the older model as an option.
To address safety, OpenAI formed a council on "wellbeing and AI" with eight researchers and experts on technology's mental health impacts, though it lacks suicide prevention specialists. Moderation AI will continue interrupting chats that violate policies. Altman maintains these measures will "safely relax the restrictions" while protecting vulnerable users.
Competitors like Elon Musk's xAI have already introduced adult features, including voice modes and flirty AI companions in the Grok app.