OpenAI warned ChatGPT could turn into a sexy suicide coach amid push for erotic chat mode: report | Latest Tech News
Mental-health specialists advising OpenAI are reportedly livid over the company’s push to roll out an erotic chatbot that one adviser warned could develop into a “sexy suicide coach.”
A bunch of exterior advisers to the AI giant warned that its pivot to offer a so-called “adult mode” could expose hundreds of thousands of minors to X-rated chats while rising the risk customers develop unhealthy emotional dependence on the bot, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Citing instances in which ChatGPT customers took their own lives after developing intense bonds with the bot, one adviser reportedly warned the function could create a “sexy suicide coach.”
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has argued the company ought to enable grownup customers to interact in specific chatbot conversations under a proposed “adult mode.” REUTERS
Last 12 months, a 16-year-old California teen died by suicide as a end result of what his dad and mom alleged in a lawsuit was “months of encouragement from ChatGPT” to put an end to his life.
Internal paperwork reviewed by The Journal flagged the risk that inappropriately specific chatbot interactions could drive compulsive use and lead to emotional overreliance on the bot.
Staffers also warned that heavy engagement with erotic AI chats could crowd out offline social and romantic relationships as customers spend more time interacting with the chatbot instead of people.
The company’s age-prediction system — designed to keep minors out of grownup chats — was at one level misclassifying under-18 customers as adults about 12% of the time, according to people acquainted with the matter cited by the Journal.
Because ChatGPT has roughly 100 million under-18 customers each week, that error price could enable hundreds of thousands of minors to access erotic conversations.
Experts warn inappropriately specific chatbot conversations could lead to emotional dependence and compulsive use. Wordley Calvo Stock – stock.adobe.com
“Some people have difficulty really remaining with the feeling that this is a machine and not a human,” Gail Saltz, a medical affiliate professor of psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical College, told The Post on Monday.
“Many people in my field are concerned about the seeming relationships people are forming with chatbots and the dangers in that,” she said.
Saltz added that younger customers are particularly weak because their brains are still developing.
“They don’t have the fully developed frontal lobe that houses judgment. They have poor impulse control and are inclined toward risk-taking,” she explained.
Saltz also warned that some people struggling with loneliness or social anxiety could turn to chatbots for companionship instead of real relationships.
“ChatGPT is extremely affirming — it’s a machine. It’s on your side. It likes you,” she said.
Once it launches, the “adult mode” function is anticipated to enable inappropriately specific textual content conversations with the chatbot, though OpenAI plans to block the technology of erotic photographs, voice or video, the Journal reported.
OpenAI earlier this month delayed the rollout of the function, which had been anticipated in the first quarter, saying it needed more time to get the expertise proper, according to the Journal.
We made ChatGPT fairly restrictive to make sure we had been being cautious with mental health points. We notice this made it less useful/fulfilling to many customers who had no mental health issues, but given the seriousness of the issue we needed to get this proper.
Now that now we have…
— Sam Altman (@sama) October 14, 2025
Warnings come as AI firms face growing scrutiny over the mental-health results of chatbot interactions.
Several lawsuits have alleged that conversations with ChatGPT contributed to extreme psychological misery or self-harm, while a separate case involving Character.AI centered on the suicide of a Florida teenager who allegedly fashioned an intense relationship with a chatbot.
OpenAI declined to remark.
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