ChatGPT’s ‘Adult Mode’ Could Spark a New Era of Intimate Surveillance
Why it matters: ChatGPT's 'adult mode' could usher in an era of intimate surveillance, fundamentally altering digital privacy.
- Julie Carpenter, a human-AI interaction expert, warns that while exploring sexuality is valid, users must be acutely aware of the 'surveillance aspect' of data collected during AI-generated erotica interactions.
- OpenAI has hinted at allowing adult users to generate erotica for two years, but the timeline remains unclear, and an advisory council has expressed concerns about risks like a 'sexy suicide coach'.
- Kate Devlin, a professor of AI and society, notes that people interacting sexually with machines is not new, but OpenAI's mainstream embrace of smut differs from niche sites or platforms like Elon Musk's Grok, which is known for nonconsensual deepfakes.
- ChatGPT's improved memory feature could log highly specific sexual proclivities, moving beyond dietary preferences to recall detailed fantasies, raising significant privacy stakes for millions of users.
OpenAI's planned 'adult mode' for ChatGPT, allowing AI-generated erotica and sexting, is raising significant concerns among experts like Julie Carpenter and Kate Devlin. While some see it as a monetization of existing user behavior, others warn of unprecedented surveillance risks due to ChatGPT's advanced memory features logging intimate sexual preferences.
