OpenAI Indefinitely Postpones ChatGPT Adult Mode

OpenAI has indefinitely postponed the launch of a planned "adult mode" for its ChatGPT chatbot, which would permit verified adult users to engage in text-based erotic conversations, following internal safety concerns and warnings from the company's wellbeing advisory council.

The feature, first announced by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman in October, aims to allow mature content akin to romance novels while restricting interactions to text only, excluding images, voice, or video generation. Altman described the initiative as treating adult users like adults, noting that the company had addressed prior mental health risks sufficiently to proceed. However, the rollout, initially targeted for the first quarter of 2026, was delayed in December due to prioritization of other products and has now been pushed back further amid unresolved technical and ethical challenges.

A primary obstacle is OpenAI's age-prediction system, designed to prevent minors from accessing the mode. Testing showed it misclassified underage users as adults about 12 percent of the time. With approximately 100 million users under 18 accessing ChatGPT weekly, this error rate could expose millions of teenagers to...