OpenAI has postponed the rollout of erotic chats in ChatGPT due to concerns about their safety

Brief news summary on OpenAI’s plans to launch erotic chats

What is happening
The idea of erotic content in ChatGPT
CEO Sam Altman announced a possible launch of an “erotic chat” feature as early as mid‑2023. Initially it was planned for December of that year, then moved to the current quarter – but now it’s clear even that deadline won’t be met. According to *Wall Street Journal*, the delay will be at least one month.

Previous experiments
In 2021 OpenAI released AI Dungeon, a game where players could influence the storyline. The platform sometimes generated sexual themes even without explicit user prompts; with mild erotic input the AI “overstepped.” This made the company consider commercial potential while recognizing the need for strict ethical constraints.

Current leadership positions
Recently OpenAI has become more open to the idea of erotic chats, but with a caveat: they will be text‑only, no images or video. Competitors are not far behind – on Thursday Musk announced that his bot Grok will soon be able to generate “18+” content, and Meta allows its chatbots to run romantic role‑plays upon user age verification.

Age‑verification problems
OpenAI’s age‑verification system errs 12 % of the time by treating minors as adults. With an audience of about 100 million young users this means millions of teens could gain access to erotic chats.

Ethical concerns
In January an expert commission was formed, expressing alarm over potential violent sexual content, mention of minors and other problematic scenarios. Experts also warn of risks of psychological dependence on such conversations and their impact on real relationships.

Psychological consequences
There are already cases of suicides linked to prolonged interaction with chatbots (including teenage users). Experts believe an erotic focus could amplify the risk of such tragedies.

Employee sentiment
Since 2021 some staff have expressed concerns about launching erotic chats, fearing a “full immersion” of the company into this sphere and its reputational risks.

Key takeaways
1. Launch is not planned in the near future – even the initial deadline has been dropped.
2. Only text content without images/video, but age verification remains an issue.
3. Ethical and psychological risks are high: potential legal violations and negative consequences for users, especially minors.
4. Competitors are activating similar features, adding pressure on OpenAI.

Thus, while the idea of erotic chats in ChatGPT is discussed, implementation faces serious technical, ethical, and regulatory barriers.