OpenAI will let adults use ChatGPT for erotica starting in December (www.engadget.com)

OpenAI announced that starting in December it will permit more adult content on ChatGPT — including erotica — once its age‑gating, parental controls and automatic age‑detection systems are fully rolled out. CEO Sam Altman framed the move around a "treat adult users like adults" principle, and follows earlier DevDay guidance that mature (18+) experiences for ChatGPT apps will be supported once appropriate verification and controls exist. The change formalizes what many users already attempt through workarounds, turning tacit tolerance into an explicit platform policy for verified adults. For the AI/ML community this is notable for both product and policy reasons: it signals an expansion of the developer ecosystem to include 18+ experiences and forces technical work on reliable age verification, content moderation, and privacy-preserving user checks. It also raises trade‑offs — increased freedom for adults versus risks of abuse, circumvention and regulatory scrutiny — especially given prior concerns about harmful outputs and real‑world harms. OpenAI pairs the shift with mitigations introduced in GPT‑5 (less sycophantic behavior, break reminders), but the move underscores a broader shift toward conditional liberalization of model behavior contingent on verification and safety tooling.