ChatGPT Gets Sexy: What AI Erotica Means for the Adult Industry

The adult industry has often had to pivot, and in some cases, fully change its methods of creating and selling its wares. From VHS tapes bypassing film, to DVDs replacing those tapes, to digital upending the landscape 180 degrees, the purveyors of porn: adult stars, content makers, XXX site owners, have been more than leery and wary of where technology has taken their business. But what's had adult content makers and workers so concerned of late is the question of what AI and ChatGPT might do to the XXX business.

Reshaping, destroying, infecting, as it has so many industries already, questions of what exactly erotic content will look like in the AI age, or even if it will survive at all, are foremost on the minds of many. But Sam Altman, chief executive officer of OpenAI, announced just this week that ChatGPT will very soon include "erotica for verified adults."

What Sam Said

"We made ChatGPT pretty restrictive to make sure we were being careful with mental health issues," Altman explained across his X feed recently. "We realize this made it less useful/enjoyable to many users who had no mental health problems, but given the seriousness of the issue, we wanted to get this right. Now that we have been able to mitigate the serious mental health issues and have new tools, we are going to be able to safely relax the restrictions in most cases." Altman also stated that ChatGPT will roll out even better age-gating tools so OpenAI can "treat adult users like adults."

But while one can easily define who is and isn't an adult by the parameters of the law (an adult being 18 years of age or older, in most cases), it might be harder to define what exactly erotica is when generated by ChatGPT or AI. Will it be left to an eye-of-the-avatar definition where we now take our cue from Justice Potter Stewart's infamous opinion in 1964's Supreme Court case Jacobellis v. Ohio, when he said, "I'll know it when I see it"?

Will AI know when it is creating erotica, and will its creations be all that's left when the machines finally take over?

Is There Really a Mental Health Issue When It Comes to Erotica?

Even the most psychologically naïve among us know that deep guilt, loss of control, and compulsive behaviors might serve as red flags for mental health problems. All three of these, and more, could be symptoms for those who become all too reliant on erotic material to fulfill their every waking hour. In a world where instant gratification seems a birthright, and erotic material more than most is always there for the taking, will Altman's baby now propagate more mental health problems, even if he says he will be ever conscious of this possibility?

OpenAI has surely seen its share of problems when it comes to impinging on the mental health of the population. There are court cases currently underway where parents are suing OpenAI over what they claim was their child's suicide, prompted by ChatGPT. And mental health has been a global issue since the further proliferation of social media in general.

When Deep Fakes Become Real

With the proliferation and popularity of the latest AI porn-generated sites, and exactly what this popularity says about our current need for erotic material, plus Altman looking to "relax the restrictions," where might we be headed? Will there come a time when we not only won't realize what is a deepfake image—we won't care? Might we be there already?