There’s a reason OpenAI will soon be adding erotica to ChatGPT

New subsriber levels are now plateauing . . . .

• The solution? Add smut

It’s an interesting strategy with some cause for alarm. Elon Musk’s Grok is an infamous example of what can happen when one opens the smut-gates on AI, which quickly became a haven for exploitation and inappropriate AI-generated imagery of children.

Elsewhere on the internet, lesser-known AI systems have led to a noxious outbreak of AI-generated deepfakes that depict the likeness of real people in explicit situations without their consent.

Part of the problem plaguing companies like OpenAI is that once LLMs are up and running, they’re pretty difficult to tweak. Some even perform worse on certain benchmarks than their predecessors.

On the other hand, that may be a convenient excuse to delay much-needed safety updates. OpenAI is also a notoriously secretive company, whose operating decisions are now likely influenced by national security hawks in the Pentagon.

One thing’s for certain: if OpenAI does open its services up to adult-oriented developers, expect a prolonged moderation crisis as it grapples with what should really be allowed, and the nastier side of virtual erotic material.