OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently announced that his company plans to “relax restrictions” on adult content, including erotica, for verified users. The idea, he says, is to “treat adult users like adults.”
The justification for this move, according to Altman, is that OpenAI has “been able to mitigate the serious mental health issues” that have come to be so closely associated with ChatGPT and other AI platforms.
To be clear, there is zero evidence that OpenAI — or any tech company, for that matter — has “been able to mitigate the serious mental health issues.” It has been just over a month since OpenAI announced that they were adding age verification and parental controls to the platform. Not enough time to have fully tested the reliability of the new controls, let alone collect data on whether they have been effective in mitigating harm.
On the contrary, this decision could be one of the most socially destructive moves in modern tech. Not only because of the still great likelihood of children being exposed to adult content (despite the easily circumvented age verification), but because of the very real risk of pushing society further toward emotional isolation, addiction, and despair.
We are in the midst of a loneliness epidemic. According to the U.S. Surgeon General, chronic loneliness poses health risks equivalent to smoking 15 cigarettes a day. Millions of people, especially young adults, report having few or no close friends.
Although some Tech Utopians (Mark Zuckerberg included) would have us believe that AI Companions are the solution to this epidemic, researchers are warning that AI chatbots are not only not alleviating the problem, they could, in fact, be accelerating it.
A 2024 study found that people who rely on chatbots for companionship tend to experience lower well-being, especially when they lack strong human social support. This sets up a dangerous cycle: the lonelier you are, the more likely you are to use a chatbot, and the more you use it, the lonelier you become.
The proliferation of AI Companions is setting us up for a dystopian future where adults increasingly opt-out of messy, complicated human relationships in favor of virtual relationships and digital companions that promise comfort, affirmation, and intimacy without rejection, accountability, or real effort.
It is already happening. An Australian survey of more than a thousand adults found one in six would sometimes rather stay home and talk with a chatbot than go out with friends. The problem was even worse with younger adults: over a quarter of “Gen Z” respondents said they would rather stay home and talk to a chatbot than go out with a friend.
Erotic AI interactions amplify this danger. These programs are engineered to mimic desire, affection, and empathy, giving users the illusion of emotional intimacy. But it is just that. An illusion. One designed by algorithms optimized for engagement, not human flourishing.
As new as this technology is, there are already reports of users developing emotional dependency on AI chatbots. Some even say they have “fallen in love” with their AI companions.
And just as pornography can rewire the brain and shape expectations about sex and relationships, AI erotica threatens to reshape our understanding of love, commitment, and companionship. Once people begin to see emotional and physical intimacy as something that can be simulated, customized, and controlled, the messy work of real relationships starts to feel unnecessary and burdensome.
Japan is already facing population collapse as fewer and fewer young people pursue dating, relationships, and marriage (a trend that started to emerge even before AI caught on). According to Psychology Today this behavior “sometimes [is] a result of the growing popularity of digital technologies, fruitless online dating, or a preference to form relationships with humanoid robots or inanimate objects (for example, robo-sexism).”
Western nations are not far behind. Barely half of U.S. adults are married. In the U.S. and Britain, the birth rate is around 1.6 — below the replacement rate of 2.1 children per woman. In 1970, 17% of adults 18 and over had never been married. Today it is 31%.
Recent data from the Pew Research Center also tells us that only one in four adults believe that having children is “extremely” or “very” important to a fulfilling life. Young people in many industrialized nations are marrying later – if at all – and putting off babies for good.
When technology conditions people to find comfort in fantasy rather than family, those numbers will only get worse.
AI can serve noble purposes — curing disease, improving education, advancing science. But turning machines into sexual companions will not make us freer, happier, or more humane. It will make us lonelier, more disconnected, and more broken.
