ChatGPT to remove most content guardrails for adults

A forthcoming update to the ChatGPT artificial intelligence chatbot will allow age-verified adults to ask it for erotic content, Sam Altman, founder of OpenAI, said on Tuesday. The changes will roll out in December, he said.

Before then, in the next few weeks, an updated ChatGPT will also start behaving in a more human-like way, Altman said. It will be able to act like a friend or character—or by using a lot of emojis—but only if users want it to, he said.

OpenAI previously built more restrictions into the chatbot to avoid aggravating mental health issues in users, Altman said. Those changes made it less enjoyable or useful for the average user, he said. The ChatGPT updates would safely relax those restrictions for most people, he said. He said the company was able to lessen risks from serious mental health issues, but he didn’t clarify how the chatbot would distinguish between users.

How many people use ChatGPT weekly? As of September, the chatbot had 700 million weekly active users, according to OpenAI. Over half were women.

Dig deeper: Read Christina Grube’s story on upcoming content restrictions for Instagram teen accounts.