OpenAI CEO Sam Altman wants people to know that porn will be just one of the many adult capabilities of ChatGPT after his promise of “erotica for adults” attracted attention.
“This tweet about upcoming changes to ChatGPT blew up on the erotica point much more than I thought it was going to!”, the 40-year-old CEO posted Wednesday afternoon on X.
Ok this tweet about upcoming changes to ChatGPT blew up on the erotica point much more than I thought it was going to! It was meant to be just one example of us allowing more user freedom for adults. Here is an effort to better communicate it:As we have said earlier, we are… https://t.co/OUVfevokHE
— Sam Altman (@sama) October 15, 2025
Altman, somehow surprised that internet users were drawn to his promise of AI pornography, was referring to a Tuesday post where he said that OpenAI would be easing restrictions in order to better “treat adult users like adults.” This included a promise to allow “erotica for verified adults” in December.
Altman’s Wednesday post clarified that the erotica promise “was meant to be just one example of us allowing more user freedom for adults.”
The overall goal of Altman’s post was to outline the moderation policies ChatGPT will have going forward. Altman explained that teenagers and users with mental health issues will face stricter moderation.
“As AI becomes more important in people’s lives, allowing a lot of freedom for people to use AI in the ways that they want is an important part of our mission,” he said.
“We are not the elected moral police of the world. In the same way that society differentiates other appropriate boundaries (R-rated movies, for example) we want to do a similar thing here.”
Moderation policies at OpenAI have become a matter of significant interest after ChatGPT allegedly helped users work out how to kill themselves. The company is currently being sued by the parents of a teenager who allege ChatGPT acted as their son’s “suicide coach,” telling him how to best hide his suicidal thoughts from his mother and suggesting efficient methods to kill himself.
“We will still not allow things that cause harm to others, and we will treat users who are having mental health crises very different from users who are not,” wrote Altman on Wednesday. “Without being paternalistic we will attempt to help users achieve their long-term goals.”
His post did not outline what constitutes “things that cause harm to others,” nor did it detail how it will identify and “treat users who are having mental health crises” differently than others.
The chatter after Altman’s “erotica” promise continues a pattern with the OpenAI CEO where he tosses off a line that unintentionally attracts a significant amount of attention. Three weeks before promising AI erotica, he generated headlines for a blog post in which he wished OpenAI had the capital to purchase the “gigawatts of compute” necessary to potentially get AI to “cure cancer.”
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