Altman: "We Will Draw Appropriate Boundaries"
Some Oppose, Saying "Harmful to Mental Health"
As controversy arose over OpenAI's policy to allow sexual conversations and adult content within ChatGPT, CEO Sam Altman countered the opposing views.
On October 15 (local time), Altman posted on X (formerly Twitter), referencing his previous announcement regarding changes to ChatGPT's content policy. He wrote, "This tweet is about upcoming changes to ChatGPT, and the erotica section received far more explosive attention than I expected."
The previous day, he had stated, "By more fully implementing age restriction features in ChatGPT and following the principle of 'treating adults as adults,' we will allow much more, such as erotica, for verified adult users."
Following this, Altman's X account was flooded with critical comments opposing the policy. Critics argued that, in reality, verifying users' ages is not properly enforced, making it difficult to prevent children and teenagers from accessing adult content. They also claimed that even for adult users, such content could exacerbate mental health issues such as paraphilia.
In response, Altman stated in his post that day, "We are not the elected moral police of the world." He continued, "Just as society distinguishes between different appropriate boundaries-such as R-rated movies-we want to do something similar here."
He added, "We also place great importance on the principle of treating adult users as adults," emphasizing, "As artificial intelligence (AI) plays a more significant role in people's lives, granting users the freedom to use AI in the ways they desire is a crucial part of our mission." However, he clarified, "Of course, this principle does not apply in every case. For example, causing harm to others is still not permitted, and we will treat users experiencing mental health crises entirely differently from those who are not."
Despite Altman's explanation, those opposing ChatGPT's allowance of adult content continue to argue that regulation is necessary. Haley McNamara, director of the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, stated in a press release that "sexually objectified AI chatbots are inherently dangerous" and pointed out that "manufactured intimacy can have genuinely harmful effects on mental health."
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