OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said a new version of ChatGPT will feature personalities that can be customised.
Sam Altman said these new experiences are part of the company’s “treat adult users like adults” principle
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OpenAI is now focusing on creating a ChatGPT experience for adults. On Tuesday, company CEO Sam Altman stated that with safeguards in place for minors and those with mental health issues, the team was now working on relaxing the baseline restrictions on the platform. This means that adult users will be able to get more use cases out of the chatbot, with the biggest among them being a version that lets the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot have a personality. Altman also teased “erotica for verified adults.”
In a post on X (formerly known as Twitter), the OpenAI Co-Founder and CEO shared new ChatGPT features that are currently in development. These new features are aimed at adults who want to be able to do more with the chatbot. Altman first hinted at these features in September with the “treat adult users as adults” principle.
Essentially, what this means is that if a healthy adult wants ChatGPT to act like a flirtatious partner or wants it to play out an erotic roleplay, the chatbot will go along with the requests instead of refusing them outright.
Altman highlighted that relaxing the safety tools to bring these features for adults was only possible due to the new guardrails for users under the age of 18, which include stricter refusal rates, parental controls, and an AI-based age estimation system.
The biggest highlight from the announcement is that the company is now working on bringing back the GPT-4o-like “personality” that was close to how a human responds. Notably, when OpenAI attempted to retire the model after releasing GPT-5, many users protested to the point that the company was forced to reinstate it.
Explaining what a personality for ChatGPT would look like, Altman said, “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.” He also highlighted that these elements are opt-in, meaning users must request them to receive these responses. So, if someone prefers standard responses, they can simply continue as they are.
Finally, Altman revealed that in December, the company will roll out a new feature that will let ChatGPT participate in erotica-like conversations. However, this will only be available for verified adults. OpenAI did not detail what these verification processes would be.
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