ChatGPT Is About to Regain Its Personality – And Then Some

Yes, OpenAI wants to allow ChatGPT to contain erotic content for adults in the future. However, this is not just an additional feature that's nice to have. Rather, the planned "erotica mode" is the result of a strategic reorientation: the chatbot should appear more personal, more emotional, even more human. Eroticism is just the cherry on the top. However, the planned changes also pose ethical, technical, and psychological risks.

• Worth reading: AI, my best friend

From Assistant to Friend

First things first: This was triggered by feedback from many users who felt that the newer version—GPT-5—was more impersonal than previous models. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has responded with a clear change in course: more personality, more emotion, and more entertaining. The planned erotica mode is the most consistent expression of this change, shifting it away from being a pure work assistant and towards a digital companion that flirts and simulates affection on request.

Altman justified this move with user freedom: previous restrictions frustrated many because they made ChatGPT "less useful or entertaining". In his opinion, however, they were necessary because questions still needed to be clarified for mentally vulnerable people. He now wrote on X:

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 (we hope it will be better!). 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).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.

Between Erotica and Ethics

According to Altman, erotic interactions should only be available to "verified adults". However, it remains unclear exactly how the age verification will work. What is clear, however, is that the mode is not activated by default. So you have to be proactive if you want to have sizzling conversations with ChatGPT.

It is also unclear how far the erotic mode can go: from romantic chat to explicit sexting? Figures already show how thin the line is: according to studies, almost a fifth of US students have already had a romantic relationship with an AI chatbot or know someone who has. A bug in spring 2025 even made it possible for minors to generate erotic images, as TechCrunch reported. And this is just a small foretaste of the challenges to come.

OpenAI is already under pressure because chatbots have created dangerous dependencies in individual cases. Cases in which users suffered psychological crises as a result of AI conversations led to lawsuits and criticism. Although the company has introduced safety mechanisms to detect risky conversations and psychological advisory boards, there are no independent bodies to verify that information.

• Meta AI is also struggling with the issue: Zuckerberg's AI proposes a real-life meeting with a pensioner who's now dead

Market Logic of Emotions

Officially, Altman emphasizes that it is not about more use, but about authenticity. However, the move follows a clear market logic: competitors such as Character.AI, Grok, and Replika have long been using erotic and emotional interactions as a growth driver and are doing so with enormous success. Grok has even let you create free videos for a few days now—and yes, even including the so-called "Spicy" mode.

The erotica mode is, therefore, probably less of a daring taboo breach than a clever strategic move in the battle for attention and loyalty. OpenAI wants a more "human" AI—but risks turning real emotions into a commodity. Will the problems really be solved, and will verified adults be provided with erotic chat evenings of a special sort in the future? We will probably get to see if OpenAI sticks to its schedule and unleashes the erotica mode on humanity in December.

Source: TechCrunch