Openai intends to allow a wider range of content, including erotic, on its popular Chatbot Chatgpt, as part of its efforts to “treat adult users like adults,” announced the head of the company, Sam Altman, according to BBC News.
In a post published on Tuesday on the social network X, Altman said that the future versions of the popular Chatbot will allow him to behave in a more human way-“but only if you want this, not because we want to maximize.”
This movement, reminiscent of the recent introduction by Xai, owned by Elon Musk, two explicit sexual chats in Grok, could help Openai attract more paying subscribers.
Also, it is likely to intensify the pressure on the legislators to introduce stricter restrictions on the chatbots, notes the British post. Openai did not respond to BBC requests to provide details about the new feature.
Altman said that Openai has previously done “restrictive enough to make sure we pay attention to mental health problems.”
These changes were announced in a blog post in August, which no longer appears on the Openai website.
“We realize that this made it less useful / pleasant for many users who did not have mental health problems, but, given the seriousness of the problem, we wanted to do this correctly,” Altman said on his post.
He added that Chatgpt could soon relax the restrictions “now that we have managed to mitigate serious problems in mental health and we have new tools.”
“In December, as we fully implement age restrictions and as part of our principle to treat adult users as adults, we will allow more, such as the erotic content for adults,” Altman wrote.
The changes come after the Openai was sued earlier this year by an American teenager who committed suicide.
The process filed by Matt and Maria Raine, the parents of Adam Raine, who was 16, was the first legal action to accuse the OpenAi death.
The family included recordings of the discussions between Adam, who died in April, and Chatgpt, in which he explains that he has suicidal thoughts.
In a statement given at that time, Openai stated for the BBC that he was examining the file.
“We send condolences to the Raine family at this difficult time,” the company said.
Concerns related to children's safety
According to the law on online safety, in the UK it is not necessary to verify the age to access written erotic content.
However, pornographic images, including those generated by AI, would require users to prove that they are over 18.
In the US, critics say that the Openai decision to allow erotic content on the platform shows the need for stricter federal and state regulation.
“How will children be able to access the parts of Chatgpt who are intended exclusively for adults and offers erotic content?” Said Jenny Kim, a partner at Boies Schiller Flexner.
Jenny Kim is involved in a Meta process, in which she claims that the company's Instagram algorithm harms the mental health of adolescent users.
“Openai, like most Tech companies in this area, uses people like guinea pigs,” she said.
In April, Techcrunch specialized site wrote that Openai allowed accounts in which a user had registered for a minor to generate an erotic graphic content.
Openai said at the time that the company launches a solution to limit such content.
A poll published this month by the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT), a non-profit organization, found that one in five students reports that they or someone I know had a “romantic relationship” with artificial intelligence.
On Monday, the governor of California, Gavin Newsom, has expressed his veto right to a draft law adopted by the state parliament that would have prevented developers from providing children with access to AI chatbots, unless companies could guarantee that the software would not generate harmful behaviors.
Newsom claimed that it is “imperative for teenagers to learn how to safely interact with AI systems”, in a message explaining its exercise of veto.
At the national level, the US Federal Commission (FTC) has launched an investigation into how Chatbot interacts with children.
Last month, a bipartisan law was introduced in the US Senate that would allow chatbot users to submit applications for compensation against their developers.
Why should the erotic content be introduced?
Altman's announcement on Tuesday came in the context in which skeptics question the rapid increase in the value of AI technology companies.
Openai income is increasing, but the company has never been profitable.
Rob Lalka, a business professor at the University of Tulane and author of the book “The Venture Alchemists”, said that the big companies are in a fight for the market share.
“No company has ever been successful with the one obtained by Openai with Chatgpt,” Prof. Lalka told BBC News.
“They needed to continue to advance on that exponential growth curve, in order to achieve the largest market,” he added.
