You read that right. Earlier today, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman posted on X that after making “ChatGPT pretty restrictive to make sure we were being careful with mental health issues,” the company is now “going to be able to safely relax the restrictions in most cases.”
On top of that, Altman said that starting in December, OpenAI, as part of an “age-gating” system push, will allow “erotica for verified users.” In other words, ChatGPT will be able to talk dirty to you before it ever shows you an ad.
Why This Matters:
Just last week, Altman seemed to soften his stance on ads, saying he liked Instagram ads and could see OpenAI one day launching “some cool ad product”—though he wouldn’t commit to what or when. Still, his tone was reluctant, and it’s no secret he favors other forms of revenue over advertising.
Now, we’ll have a ChatGPT offering erotic chat experiences to verified adult users before ever showing an ad to anyone. That’s pretty wild—and it underscores just how little Altman seems to think of ads. It also highlights a bigger issue for the adtech industry: ads themselves have a PR problem. It’s tough to succeed in an industry built on enabling ads when the product you enable is liked less than “erotica.”
Is this surprising, especially given what Grok offers? Maybe not. From Tumblr to Reddit, sex has always been an early driver of digital adoption and engagement. Apparently, AI is no different.
Experts React:
Oh man, there are some great posts on X about this. See here:
Our Take:
Damn, Altman just doesn’t like ads. It’s probably more likely we’ll see ads on OnlyFans before we ever see them on ChatGPT. Sure, there’s still a chance—but it feels like ads are the backup to the backup to the backup.
Ultimately, it’s telling that in 2025, ads are still treated as something to apologize for. The irony is that AI could actually make ads better—more relevant, more contextual, even more ethical. But culturally, advertising remains a villain in tech, while paywalled or premium “experiences” get a moral pass. That disconnect is part of why adtech struggles to get respect, even as it funds the free internet.
