THE CREATORS OF ChatGPT have pedalled back on attempts to make the chatbot less human, opting instead to make it respond in a “very human-like way”, including by introducing erotica for adult users from December.

The CEO of OpenAI, the company behind the chatbot, said today that the changes are being brought in to relax previous measures taken to make ChatGPT safer for people with mental health issues.

The Journal previously reported that a growing number of people were using AI chatbots as therapists, with one woman in America tragically taking her own life after discussing her desire to do so with ChatGPT.

Open AI chief Sam Altman said that the company has been able to mitigate the serious mental health issues with new tools, and can now “safely relax” the restrictions in most cases.

OpenAI told The Journal that the company has focused on improving how ChatGPT responds when people are in distress, guided by work with mental health experts.

It said it has updated ChatGPT’s default model to more accurately detect and respond to potential signs of mental and emotional distress, routed sensitive conversations to safer models, expanded referrals to professional help when needed, added nudges to take breaks during long sessions, and introduced parental controls.

It added that the company can now tailor experiences for teens, people in distress, and adults who want more freedom.

“We made ChatGPT pretty restrictive to make sure we were being careful with mental health issues,” Altman said on X while announcing the updates today.

“We realize this made it less useful/enjoyable to many users who had no mental health problems, but given the seriousness of the issue we wanted to get this right.”

He said that within a few weeks, a new version of ChatGPT with more personality will be released.

“If you want your ChatGPT to respond in a very human-like way, or use a ton of emoji, or act like a friend, ChatGPT should do it,” he said.

As part of the roll-out, he said that in December there will be increased age restrictions and more adult content, such as erotica.

“As part of our “treat adult users like adults” principle, we will allow even more, like erotica for verified adults.”

He reassured users that they will not have to engage in erotic content unless they specifically request to do so.

OpenAI said it plans to hold firm boundaries against the technology being used for sexual deepfakes and non-consensual content.

It said they are building an age prediction system to understand whether someone is over or under 18, so their ChatGPT experience can be tailored appropriately.

It said if they not confident about someone’s age they will default to the under-18 experience and give adults ways to prove their age to unlock adult capabilities.