ChatGPT might soon get a lot “friendlier” with users — literally and figuratively. According to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, the company plans to introduce age-gating to the LLM, marking a clear distinction between how minors and adults will interact with the chatbot.
The update stems from a post Altman shared on X Tuesday, where he addressed growing frustration over the GPT-5 update over the summer, which resulted in ChatGPT “losing” its “personality,” according to many user complaints.
In the post, Altman said he believes OpenAI has “mitigated serious mental health issues” associated with AI chatbot use, and that the company is now exploring ways to ease some of its tighter content limits. OpenAI recently introduced new safety tools as well, including new parental controls.
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Altman announced that OpenAI will roll out a new version of ChatGPT in the coming weeks that “behaves more like what people liked about [previous GPT version] 4o.” Then, starting in December, as OpenAI introduces “age-gating” features, restrictions around erotic or sexually explicit conversations will be lifted “for verified adult users,” Altman wrote. It’s unclear how OpenAI will prove users’ ages.
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This is a notable shift for OpenAI, especially given that the company intentionally designed GPT-5 to make the chatbot less “sycophantic” and help prevent potential mental health crises among users. Now, Altman says he wants to “treat adult users like adults” and seems more open to allowing erotica or sexual expression within the chatbot experience for those who want it.
Altman’s post quickly drew mixed reactions. Some users expressed frustration that instead of simply bringing back the beloved GPT-4o, OpenAI was releasing an update that would merely “behave like 4o.”
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Others mocked the CEO for seemingly walking back his August comments, when he said he was proud that OpenAI “hasn’t put an AI sex bot into ChatGPT yet.” And then there were those who pointed out the irony of Altman’s newfound openness to erotic chat, given his recent prediction that ChatGPT could “cure cancer one day.”
Mashable reached out to OpenAI for comment but didn’t receive a response before publication.
Disclosure: Ziff Davis, Mashable’s parent company, in April filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.
