It’s an open question if AI is going to save us or kill us. Or, perhaps something in between, who knows. I remain skeptical, if not downright pessimistic, given the current trajectory of the technology.
On Tuesday, Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, posted a message that they were planning to introduce age gating in ChatGPT in order to enhance safety for minors. This is in response to criticism, Congressional inquiries, and lawsuits, following suicides and self-harm from young ChatGPT users who were encouraged by their friendly chatbot.
Not to worry, though, in exchange for stricter controls on minors, they are introducing a “treat adult users as adults” policy, which will include “erotica” for verified adults. Apparently, suicide, self-mutilation, and sexually explicit & emotionally abusive conversations wasn’t scourge enough. Now we’re getting AI porn.
This comes just a few months after an interview in which Altman stated that OpenAI would never stoop to something sleazy, like putting a sexbot into ChatGPT. It seems the company has changed course and is now ready to stoop all the way down to the sewer.
ChatGPT’s descent did not go unnoticed, however. The following day Altman posted an update; “Ok this tweet about upcoming changes to ChatGPT blew up on the erotica point much more than I thought it was going to!” Really? That’s so surprising.
He follows with a CYA paragraph about how they’re committed to safety for minors, before moving on to making excuses for their foray into internet porn.
“We also care very much about the principle of treating adult users like adults. 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.”
Silly me, I thought we were going to try and cure cancer, or solve difficult physics problems, but no, we’re going to focus on “important” things like porn. Judging from the comments, however, the importance that users put on access to porn is pretty high. In general, the response was some form of “bring it on” and/or “ignore the people who are complaining.”
The overall gist of the original message, though, was safety. Essentially, don’t allow the chatbots to negatively influence users into negative behavior. Moving from that statement directly into “adult erotica” seems willfully ignorant of the harm done from internet porn. There’s ample evidence, from plenty of research, on the negative impacts of porn on individuals, relationships, families, and society in general.
If the goal is to not negatively impact users, then why go down the dark path of something that we already know is dangerous to mental health?
Altman’s justification is, “But we are not the elected moral police of the world.” True, but maybe acting in a moral and responsible way shouldn’t be too much to ask. No one elected you to harm society either.
Or maybe I’m just overly pessimistic.
P.A. Tennant – October, 2025
Soli Deo Gloria
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