What did Sam Altman say about mental health? OpenAI CEO's response to ChatGPT's 'erotica' backlash stirs discussion online

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is trending after he shared a social media post, claiming that the platform is planning to bring erotica content, and it will behave like a human in the upcoming updates.

In a lengthy statement posted through X on October 14, 2025, the entrepreneur and investor said that OpenAI has maintained certain restrictions to ensure that they are careful when it comes to mental health problems. However, the company now wants to change the same as they believe that the restrictions have made the platform less enjoyable for everyone.

“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,” Sam wrote.

Altman said that they are working on another version of ChatGPT where users would have a personality behaving “more like what people like about 4o.” He addressed the fact that ChatGPT should reply like a human or have a friendly behavior and added:

“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.”

However, Sam Atlman’s latest announcement received heavy criticism as netizens took to the comments section of the post to react to the same. One of them recalled Sam’s interview a few weeks ago, where he claimed that he was proud of not having a “s*xbot” on the platform.

“Wasn’t it like 10 weeks ago that you said you were proud you hadn’t put a s*xbot in chatgpt?”, @TolgaBilge_ wrote.

Another person questioned how Sam Altman’s platform will keep inappropriate content away from children.

“How will you verify age? How careful are you being to keep this away from kids? Genuinely asking”, @robbystarbuck commented.

An individual seemingly claimed that the competition emerging against the platform has led to such decisions.

“Let’s be real. If competition didn’t take your users, you wouldn’t have changed anything”, @AwokeKnowing said.

One of the responses questioned Sam on how the latest updates will decide the limits of acceptable conduct when it comes to intimacy on a digital platform.

“When you say “Adult Mode” and erotica will be allowed in ChatGPT, how do you define the ethical boundaries of digital intimacy?”, @VraserX stated.

Sam Altman responds to the social media criticism through another post

Around two days after Sam’s initial statement went viral, he shared another post on X. This was in response to the backlash emerging from the announcement, as he wrote that it aims to be an example of bringing more freedom for adult users.

Sam Altman clarified that OpenAI won’t change the mental health policies, adding that safety will always be a priority while they aim to give freedom to the teenagers. He mentioned that protection is necessary for minors:

“We also care very much about the principle of treating adult users like adults. As AI becomes more important in people’s lives, allowing a lot of freedom for people to use AI in the ways that they want is an important part of our mission.”

Sam Altman said that certain things will remain the same, including that they won’t allow anything to cause harm to other people and treat all those people in a different way who are dealing with mental health issues. He ended by writing:

“We are not the elected moral police of the world. In the same way that society differentiates other appropriate boundaries (R-rated movies, for example) we want to do a similar thing here.”

Meanwhile, OpenAI announced its new collaboration with Broadcom on October 13, 2025, through its official website. The company said that the partnership aims to bring 10 gigawatts of custom AI accelerators, which will be designed by them.