OpenAI suspends plans for erotic chatbot

In its hunt for profits, OpenAI planned to launch an erotic version of ChatGPT that would entertain human users with sex talk and imagery. These plans are indefinitely "on hold," reports The Financial Times, due to concerns from staff and investors.

The potental catastrophic outcomes are many—take Grok's CSAM problem, for example—but the generally deranged, desperate sleaziness of the product surely helped OpenAI "refocus on its core products," as the FT put it.

Earlier this week, OpenAI unexpectedly announced the closure of its text-to-video service, Sora, after only a few months of operation. Impressive as it was (Disney had even promised to invest $1bn in it, which won't now happen) there was no clear prospect of output getting past its "Hollywood Slop" vibe and it burned money hand over fist.

Previously: Already $17.9 billion in, Sam Altman confident good things are coming from OpenAI