OpenAI’s ChatGPT will soon allow ‘erotica’ for adults in major policy shift
Sam Altman, chief executive officer of OpenAI Inc., during a media tour of the Stargate AI data center in Abilene, Texas, US, on Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025.
Kyle Grillot | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Adult ChatGPT users can soon access a less censored version of the artificial intelligence chatbot, which will include erotic materials, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has announced in an apparent policy shift.
“In December, as we roll out age-gating more fully and as part of our ‘treat adult users like adults’ principle, we will allow even more, like erotica for verified adults,” Altman said in a social media post on Tuesday.
Though it remains unclear what material will qualify as permitted erotica, the move could represent a major shift in OpenAI’s policy, which formerly prohibited such content in most contexts.
According to Altman, existing versions of ChatGPT were made “pretty restrictive” to protect users from mental health risks, but that approach made the chatbot “less useful [and enjoyable to many users who had no mental health problems.
“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,” he said.
Those “new tools” appear to refer to safety features and parental controls rolled out last month to address concerns over how the chatbot was impacting young users’ mental health.
However, as safeguards for minors expand, it appears that Altman is ready for ChatGPT to take a looser approach for adults.
OpenAI hinted at a shift in February when language on its “Model Spec” page was updated to clarify that, in order to “maximize freedom” for users, only sexual content involving minors was prohibited. Still, erotica was considered to be “sensitive content” to be generated only in certain permitted contexts.
Besides the rollout in December, Altman also said a new version of ChatGPT will launch in the coming weeks, allowing the chatbot to adopt more distinct personalities — building on updates in the latest GPT‑4o version.
“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 said. “But only if you want it.“
Growth vs. safety
After Altman’s post on Tuesday, some social media users were quick to point out his previous statements suggesting that ChatGPT wouldn’t implement sexualized chat features, unlike rival models such as xAI’s Grok.
In an August interview, independent tech journalist Cleo Abram asked Altman to give an example of a decision he had made that was best for the world, but not for winning the AI race.
“Well, we haven’t put a sex bot avatar in ChatGPT yet,” Altman said in an apparent nod to provocative AI companions released by Elon Musk’s xAI.
Altman’s policy shift comes at a notable time for OpenAI, as it already faces increased scrutiny over its safety practices. In September, the Federal Trade Commission launched an inquiry into several tech companies, including OpenAI, over potential risks to children and teenagers.
That followed a lawsuit from a California couple who alleged that ChatGPT contributed to their 16-year-old son’s suicide.
OpenAI on Tuesday also announced an eight-member expert council on well-being and AI to advise the company on how artificial intelligence affects users’ mental health, emotions and motivation.
The council will guide OpenAI in defining what healthy AI interactions look like through check-ins and recurring meetings, the company said.
Cheng Xin | Getty Images
Okta on Tuesday topped Wall Street’s third-quarter estimates and issued an upbeat outlook, but shares fell as the company did not provide guidance for fiscal 2027.
Shares of the identity management provider fell more than 3% in after-hours trading on Tuesday.
Here’s how the company did versus LSEG estimates:
- Earnings per share: 82 cents adjusted vs. 76 cents expected
- Revenue: $742 million vs. $730 million expected
Compared to previous third-quarter reports, Okta refrained from offering preliminary guidance for the upcoming fiscal year. Finance chief Brett Tighe cited seasonality in the fourth quarter, and said providing guidance would require “some conservatism.”
Okta released a capability that allows businesses to build AI agents and automate tasks during the third quarter.
CEO Todd McKinnon told CNBC that upside from AI agents haven’t been fully baked into results and could exceed Okta’s core total addressable market over the next five years.
“It’s not in the results yet, but we’re investing, and we’re capitalizing on the opportunity like it will be a big part of the future,” he said in a Tuesday interview.
Revenues increased almost 12% from $665 million in the year-ago period. Net income increased 169% to $43 million, or 24 cents per share, from $16 million, or breakeven, a year ago. Subscription revenues grew 11% to $724 million, ahead of a $715 million estimate.
For the current quarter, the cybersecurity company expects revenues between $748 million and $750 million and adjusted earnings of 84 cents to 85 cents per share. Analysts forecast $738 million in revenues and EPS of 84 cents for the fourth quarter.
Returning performance obligations, or the company’s subscription backlog, rose 17% from a year ago to $4.29 billion and surpassed a $4.17 billion estimate from StreetAccount.
This year has been a blockbuster period for cybersecurity companies, with major acquisition deals from the likes of Palo Alto Networks and Google and a raft of new initial public offerings from the sector.
Okta shares have gained about 4% this year.
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Marvell Technology Group Ltd. headquarters in Santa Clara, California, on Sept. 6, 2024.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Semiconductor company Marvell on Tuesday announced that it will acquire Celestial AI for at least $3.25 billion in cash and stock.
The purchase price could increase to $5.5 billion if Celestial hits revenue milestones, Marvell said.
Marvell shares rose 13% in extended trading Tuesday as the company reported third-quarter earnings that beat expectations and said on the earnings call that it expected data center revenue to rise 25% next year.
The deal is an aggressive move for Marvell to acquire complimentary technology to its semiconductor networking business. The addition of Celestial could enable Marvell to sell more chips and parts to companies that are currently committing to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on infrastructure for AI.
Marvell stock is down 18% so far in 2025 even as semiconductor rivals like Broadcom have seen big valuation increases driven by excitement around artificial intelligence.
Celestial is a startup focused on developing optical interconnect hardware, which it calls a “photonic fabric,” to connect high-performance computers. Celestial was reportedly valued at $2.5 billion in March in a funding round, and Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan joined the startup’s board in January.
Optical connections are becoming increasingly important because the most advanced AI systems need those parts tie together dozens or hundreds of chips so they can work as one to train and run the biggest large-language models.
Currently, many AI chip connections are done using copper wires, but newer systems are increasingly using optical connections because they can transfer more data faster and enable physically longer cables. Optical connections also cost more.
“This builds on our technology leadership, broadens our addressable market in scale-up connectivity, and accelerates our roadmap to deliver the industry’s most complete connectivity platform for AI and cloud customers,” Marvell CEO Matt Murphy said in a statement.
Marvell said that the first application of Celestial technology would be to connect a system based on “large XPUs,” which are custom AI chips usually made by the companies investing billions in AI infrastructure.
On Tuesday, the company said that it could even integrate Celestial’s optical technology into custom chips, and based on customer traction, the startup’s technology would soon be integrated into custom AI chips and related parts called switches.
Amazon Web Services Vice President Dave Brown said in a statement that Marvell’s acquisition of Celestial will “help further accelerate optical scale-up innovation for next-generation AI deployments.”
The maximum payout for the deal will be triggered if Celestial can record $2 billion in cumulative revenue by the end of fiscal 2029. The deal is expected to close early next year.
In its third-quarter earnings on Tuesday, Marvell earnings of 76 cents per share on $2.08 billion in sales, versus LSEG expectations of 73 cents on $2.07 billion in sales. Marvell said that it expects fourth-quarter revenue to be $2.2 billion, slightly higher than LSEG’s forecast of $2.18 billion.
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