“Levels of loserdom previously unknown to mankind:” ChatGPT says erotica is coming. People have some thoughts

Sam Altman is the subject of scorn once again after announcing that the new ChatGPT update will allow erotica generation.

On Tuesday, Altman made a somewhat bizarre announcement on X as to where ChatGPT is headed. He first started out by saying ChatGPT was initially “pretty restrictive to make sure we were being careful with mental health issues,” a claim that seems extremely dubious considering some of the tragic stories that have come out.

After alleging that OpenAI has been able to “mitigate the serious mental health issues and have new tools,” Altman said that restrictions surrounding what ChatGPT can and cannot do are going to be relaxed in “most cases.”

“In a few weeks, we plan to put out a new version of ChatGPT that allows people to have a personality that behaves more like what people liked about 4o,” he said. “If you want your ChatGPT to respond in a very human-like way, or use a ton of emoji, or act like a friend, ChatGPT should do it (but only if you want it, not because we are usage-maxxing).”

Then he added: “In December, as we roll out age-gating more fully and as part of our ‘treat adult users like adults’ principle, we will allow even more, like erotica for verified adults.”

The concept of erotica-generating AI

The concept of using AI to generate erotic fiction isn’t new. There have been plenty of discussions on AI subreddits over the last few years questioning how to get around guardrails on certain platforms, like ChatGPT, and asking which services remove those guardrails entirely.

And if someone is really devoted to the idea of using AI to cough up some smutty fiction, there are plenty of options already, from Smitten, which generates full stories based on prompts, to NovelAI, which allows users to write alongside the AI.

Obviously, AI remains extremely controversial, particularly when it comes to anything creative. But the point here is that people who desperately want erotica-generating AI for whatever reason already have access to it without OpenAI stepping in.

ChatGPT erotica gets ridiculed

Despite all of that, ChatGPT is arguably the most well-known AI-generating platform. So it makes sense, from a business standpoint, that OpenAI would want to try to increase its customer base by tapping into the, well, erotica-generating market. 

At the same time, having a machine pump out erotica is depressing on multiple levels.

To start, using AI to generate any fiction rather than encouraging humans to express themselves creatively is just a bummer. Then there’s also the part where people are already falling into weird spirals where they feel like AI is a real person, pal, or even a significant other they’re talking to, and adding a sexual component to that certainly won’t help that psychosis.

And then, of course, there are the resources being devoted to this, both in terms of the literal resources AI takes up, like energy and water, and the money being thrown at this instead of something that would actually better society.

But tech bros do whatever they want, and all the rest of us can really do most of the time is mock them for it on the internet. So here we are again.

“we are inventing levels of Loserdom previously unknown to mankind,” wrote @jaboukie.

Mark Cuban also weighed in, writing, “This is going to backfire. Hard. No parent is going to trust that their kids can’t get through your age gating. Why take the risk?”

“Weird how the update is never ‘we cured cancer or whatever,’” tweeted @davidgross_man.

“a project unwaveringly committed to ruining the experience of being alive for as many people as possible” added @tristandross.

“Translation: OpenAI is the least profitable company in human history so we’re gonna go all in on the school shooter and pornography markets and see if that doesn’t juice our abysmal ROI stats just a little,” wrote @sethharpesq.

Now, a particularly cynical person might suggest that this will only boost the current calls for further censorship on the internet via government intervention. After all, nobody wants kids to have access to an AI platform that might generate erotica for them, right?

Altman said there will be age restrictions in play, but we’ll just have to wait and see what those are and how well they actually work.

But remember—if you do use ChatGPT to generate some kinky erotica, it may not be private forever.

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