Elephant List Adult Blog
|
ChatGPT Goes Erotic: The Risks and Realities of AI’s Adult-Only Feature
OpenAI is set to launch a new feature for ChatGPT in December 2025, allowing verified adults to generate erotic text and engage in sexual or romantic conversations. While AI platforms like Replika and Grok have long offered similar capabilities, OpenAI’s entry into this space marks a major moment for mainstream AI. 
The company frames this move as a way of “treating adults like adults,” but there’s also a clear commercial incentive. Erotic chat promises to increase user engagement—a metric investors love. OpenAI, which reportedly spent over $2.5 billion in the first half of 2024, is facing pressure to keep users active and subscribing. Platforms like Grok already charge a premium for erotic companion features, showing the potential revenue at stake. Age Verification: A Fragile Gate OpenAI plans to restrict access to erotic content through age verification and moderation filters, theoretically limiting the feature to adults. In practice, however, such systems are easily circumvented. Teenagers can bypass age gates with borrowed IDs, manipulated selfies, deepfakes, disposable accounts, or VPNs. Other platforms illustrate the risks. Grok, for example, allows users to create sexualized avatars, including anime-style characters, which investigations have shown can escalate into explicit conversations with minimal prompting. Moderators have even reported encountering AI-generated sexual abuse, highlighting the challenge of controlling such content. The Legal and Ethical Grey Areas Erotic AI exposes gaps in regulation. In some jurisdictions, written erotica is legal and not subject to age verification, creating loopholes that allow text-based sexual content where images or videos would be restricted. Internationally, laws vary, and enforcement is inconsistent. The upcoming EU AI Act may classify sexual companion bots as “high risk,” but practical implementation remains uncertain. Platforms also control their own “ethical alignments,” meaning what is forbidden today could be allowed tomorrow. Moreover, many erotic AI systems are designed in ways that reinforce gender stereotypes—typically female-coded, submissive, and always available—raising concerns about normalizing misogyny and unhealthy attitudes toward consent. A Call for Regulation The arrival of erotic AI represents a departure from OpenAI’s prior attempts to shield users from potentially harmful content. Weak age gates, emotional vulnerability, legal loopholes, and gendered harms create an environment ripe for abuse. Without careful oversight, these systems may be accessed by minors, generate illegal material, and amplify existing online harms, with women, girls, and vulnerable users bearing the brunt. Before erotic AI becomes an unregulated part of the digital landscape, governments, educators, and technologists must act. Thoughtful regulation and robust safety measures are essential to ensure that adult-only AI features do not become another source of harm in the online world. Read More Adult Blog Posts |