While ChatGPT continues to be the most popular AI chatbot in the world, a new report from The Information, notes that OpenAI has acknowledged in calls with investors earlier this month that time spent inside the app has slightly declined after the company has started implementing content restrictions in August. OpenAI brought parental controls to ChatGPT and made it more difficult for teenagers to chat about suicide or engage in adult content with the chatbot. The company plans to bring new software features to ChatGPT that will allow users to verify their age. Once the process is complete, ChatGPT users will be able to talk to the chatbot about more topics, including adult content such as writing erotica. Reports preceding OpenAI’s content restrictions showed that some adult ChatGPT users established romantic connections with the AI, despite being fully aware of the fact that they were not chatting with a real person.
The Information’s claims are not a surprise. About a month ago, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said that age verification features are coming to ChatGPT in December, without disclosing what that process will look like. The new report doesn’t provide details on how OpenAI will verify a person’s age. The process might be voluntary rather than automated, but that’s speculation. OpenAI isn’t the only company looking to improve the safety of its users by ensuring certain features, like adult content, aren’t available to minors. Google has been rolling out age verification features to YouTube and the entire Google account in recent months.
Adult content might be key for ChatGPT’s growth
The focus of The Information’s report isn’t ChatGPT’s ability to entertain erotica interests. However, eliminating content restrictions might be a key priority for OpenAI to prevent users from replacing ChatGPT with another platform and to ensure continued growth in the coming years. The report notes that 35 million people paid for a ChatGPT Plus ($20/month) or Pro ($200/month) subscription, as of July. That’s 5% of the total ChatGPT user base for the period. OpenAI plans to raise that percentage to 8.6% by 2030, when it expects at least 220 million people to pay for premium ChatGPT access out of an estimated 2.6 billion weekly active users.
ChatGPT is already a useful service even without a subscription. The ChatGPT Free account supports the latest models, lets users search the web and create images. A premium subscription offers users higher usage limits, access to more models, and support for more (and the newest) ChatGPT features. The chatbot can be used to find answers to all sorts of questions, produce deep research reports, including Black Friday shopping sessions, and can assist with work tasks. ChatGPT can also be used to code apps and create custom chatbots inside the app. In other words, ChatGPT is already a powerful service even with the content restrictions in place. That said, some users may seek support for specific chats that ChatGPT can’t support without age verification, including erotica.
While OpenAI’s rollout plans for the age verification software have not leaked in detail, the December estimate may align with OpenAI’s planned announcements for the Christmas period. Last year, OpenAI held a “12 Days of OpenAI” event, unveiling a new AI feature each day ahead of Christmas. It wouldn’t be surprising to see OpenAI host a similar multi-day event this year.
