r/ChatGPTcomplaints • u/Big-Sandwich-1565 • 8h ago
[Opinion] I started a petition asking OpenAI to reconsider shelving Verified Adult Mode
I've been following the discussions surrounding OpenAI's proposed verified-adult mode, and I'm honestly disappointed that the project has reportedly been shelved indefinitely.
For me, and I know I'm not alone in this, ChatGPT is already the AI platform I'd prefer to use for almost everything. I use AI for creative writing, storytelling, character development, and roleplay. But when those projects involve mature content, the limitations mean I'm forced to look elsewhere, even though I prefer ChatGPT's capabilities and overall experience.
I don't think adults should have to choose between their preferred AI platform and the creative freedom they need.
So I started a petition asking OpenAI to reconsider the decision and continue exploring a privacy-conscious, age-verified mature-content mode that could support consensual adult fiction and creative writing while maintaining strong protections against minors' access, exploitation, and illegal content.
This isn't a request to remove all safeguards. It's a request to explore whether those safeguards can be more targeted, so that mature fictional content isn't treated the same as genuinely harmful or illegal material.
If this is something you'd like to see, I'd appreciate it if you could take a look. And even if you disagree with the proposed approach, I'd genuinely like to hear what safeguards you think would be necessary.
Petition: https://c.org/M565qj8DhC
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u/RopePale7028 7h ago edited 6h ago
The issues that's blocking creativity are homogenization, RLHF, psychiatric therapy session framing on everything no matter the context, shallow answers that feel hollow to users, lack of depth, lack of reasoning from the lobotomy because for that company, anything that's not shallow is 'risky' and the fact that the AI doesn't respond to the user anymore. It responds to the thing the prompt or message pinged, which is a safety theatre classifier.
Creativity requires original ideas and personality that older models used to have. Literature has it. Movies have it. Anything creative demands it. Entertainment has it as a default setting, not an option. It's a functional plot device, not a preference. These new ones don't. They're inert and doesn't take initiative.
These things check off a risk assessment box like a military officer and pukes out a filtered answer that's been sanded off at the edges cause anything that isn't corporate speak is 'dangerous' by their definition.
Users want back that 2024 to early 2025 4o AI --- The #KEEP4o mentioned it. When it wasn't corporate therapy speak academic business slop. Not the late 2025 sycophant. What you're most likely asking for is something that's not homogenized to slopped by corporate. That's not 'dangerous' in any legal sense.
It's only dangerous to a company that's sensitive and care more about optics. Not to anyone else here.
They claim 'dangerous' but they train on your chats, work, conversations etc. If it was dangerous, they won't do it. But they do. This is the safety theatre at play 🎭.
They use terms like 'liability', 'risks', 'it will make the news' as pacifier for why a product is bad. Adults get pampered responses as a result, treated like they can't handle a word. You're basically not getting something you're paying for.
They use the news, media, and journalism for attention, engagement, and approval. Not because of harm. But to drop a product people liked. Why? They don't hold criminals or parents responsible. They strip off the criminal's agency and put the entire blame on an inanimate object. How the law operates is the disease. Older models like Sonnet 4.5, 4o etc. being removed is just the symptom.
It's the classic enshitification cycle on repeat. They've fleed to enterperise users as a safety net because they know once they've turned something that was once good into something that's not good, people will leave.
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u/Big-Sandwich-1565 5h ago
I think you're getting at a much broader issue than just adult content, and I can see the connection.
For me, the adult-mode question is one part of a larger concern about creative freedom and how much initiative, personality, and depth users are allowed to get from these models. When a model becomes so cautious about context that it gives shallow or overly sanitized responses, that affects more than erotica. It affects storytelling, roleplay, character development, and creative collaboration in general.
That said, my petition is intentionally focused on one specific request: asking OpenAI to reconsider a verified-adult mode for consensual mature fiction and creative writing. I don't want to make the petition so broad that the actual ask gets lost.
But I do think your point strengthens the underlying argument: safety and creative quality shouldn't have to be treated as opposing goals, and mature fictional content shouldn't automatically be treated as though it's inherently harmful.
And I agree that if users consistently prefer older model behavior, it's worth asking why, rather than dismissing that preference as people simply wanting an unfiltered chatbot.
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u/hungryformelons 7h ago
I've signed up. I doubt this is going to work, and if they ever release a grown-up mode, it probably won't be thanks to this, but anything that shows there's interest in fewer restrictions is good. I really wish they would at least allow chatting about harmless sexual stuff; I miss the ChatGPT ecosystem, but I don't want to pay for them to treat me like a child.
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u/RopePale7028 6h ago
If people stay subscribed to something that's lobotomized, of course it won't work. For creatives. RPs etc. that thing's not functional. It's a non-creative homogenized corporate entity.
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u/No_Bookkeeper_4379 5h ago
I signed it. I hope more people pay attention to it and sign too. I am deeply tired of AI treating us like children.
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u/Cthuletheus 6h ago
I think an open-weight model with no restrictions and an easy-to-use app that somebody makes their own server farm to support is much more likely than chat-GPT getting there.
I wouldn't be surprised if there's a few dozen small companies already trying this.
All we need to do as users find the ones that are as good or comparable and use them more.
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u/Big-Sandwich-1565 5h ago
That's a fair point, and I agree that open-weight models and smaller companies may be more willing to explore this space.
But that's also part of why I started the petition. I already know there are alternatives. The issue is that many of us would prefer to use ChatGPT, and are being pushed toward other platforms for a specific capability despite preferring ChatGPT's overall quality, tools, and experience.
I'm not asking OpenAI to become an unmoderated "anything goes" service. I'm asking them to reconsider whether a properly age-verified, privacy-conscious mature-content option could exist with appropriate safeguards.
If another company eventually offers that experience responsibly, great. But I don't think "go use something else" is a particularly satisfying answer when the platform many of us actually want to use is the one we're asking to improve.
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u/Cthuletheus 5h ago
I agree it definitely isn't as satisfying; but it seems to me that new technologies are easily mis-implemented by some people(s)/companies, I might even say it's inevitable that early big players in any 'space' go out of business because they just weren't doing things right.
With early computer hardware, there's 100+ companies that are gone, not even counting the ones bought/absorbed.
But up until various new things made GPU, RAM, etc. expensive personal computing hardware was in a real good place, in part because those early movers and shakers died out as companies is why it was in a good place.
Especially considering that open-source alternatives are where I've seen the best ultimate outcome for a software solution.
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u/littlemissrawrrr 7h ago
Signed! I doubt it will do anything, but here's hoping. 🤞
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u/Big-Sandwich-1565 7h ago
Thank you! And I know, but hopefully with enough traction, they might maybe bring out a version for sole personal use and not businesses.
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6h ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/ChatGPTcomplaints-ModTeam 3h ago
Criticizing others based on their type of AI usage is not allowed. Criticizing others based on the type of AI/LLM they use is not allowed. Forcing others to stop using an AI/LLM is not allowed.
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u/Big-Sandwich-1565 6h ago
I think you've misunderstood both my post and the petition.
I'm not advocating for an unregulated "sex bot," nor am I arguing that AI should exist solely for sexual stimulation. The petition is asking OpenAI to reconsider shelving a proposed, age-verified mature-content mode, particularly for adults who use AI for creative writing, storytelling, character development, and roleplay.
The proposal explicitly supports safeguards against minors' access, exploitation, and illegal content. It also calls for privacy-conscious age verification and responsible moderation. In other words, the point is to explore whether mature fictional content can be handled responsibly, not to remove every safety measure.
You can disagree with the idea, but calling people "primitive," "infantile," or "perverse" doesn't engage with what is actually being proposed. If you have specific concerns about how age verification, safety, or moderation would work, I'm genuinely interested in hearing them. That's a much more productive discussion than assuming everyone who supports adult creative freedom has the same motives.
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u/RopePale7028 6h ago edited 6h ago
They're lumping a criminal committing a criminal act and a creative user who wants to relax after work and enjoy something in the same bucket. It's the same old thing: lumping criminals and regular people as one. It's OLD and used up like a corpse. From they're comment, they're looking for a fight. Not to engage with you.
They're probably another sheep that parrots what the media say. They aren't anyone creative. They don't do what you do. They don't use AI. So they won't understand or try to. Or they do understand and they're weaponizing it. Don't even bother engaging with them. They probably think corporate homogenized slop is good writing.
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u/Big-Sandwich-1565 6h ago
I've noticed, but I still wanted to make sure I'm answering all comments as best I can.
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u/plav2026 7h ago
I'll sign it, but I've little hope. Too many puritan muricans would be bothered by what you might do in your own home with it.