Has AGI stood for Artificial Gooning Intelligence, all along? We are about to find out, as things are about to change in the world of AI, as ChatGPT is set to roll out its adult mode” early next year.

But before you get too excited, ChatGPT’s adult mode isn’t going to be all-out pornographic. In fact, it will be far more like a sexy tease. You won’t be able to create your own porn star or likely do anything truly hardcore.

Still, it is something, and for the first time, mainstream AI will allow more adult conversations, including rumored erotica.

After years of speculation, OpenAI has put a timeline on one of ChatGPT’s most debated features. The company says its long-discussed “Adult Mode” is expected to launch in the first quarter of 2026, opening the door to more explicit and less restricted conversations for verified adult users.

The update was disclosed during a recent briefing tied to OpenAI’s GPT-5.2 model. Fidji Simo, OpenAI’s chief executive of applications, said the feature is already being tested in select countries and will roll out only after the company is confident it can reliably separate adults from minors.

For much of its public life, ChatGPT has been criticized for strict content limits around sexuality and mature themes. Those guardrails were designed to protect younger users and avoid misuse, but many adults have complained that the restrictions made the system feel overly sanitized and less useful. Adult Mode is meant to address that by allowing open-ended, mature conversations, including erotica, for users who opt in and pass age checks.

According to Simo, the biggest hurdle is not generating adult content, but preventing minors from accessing it. OpenAI is currently testing an age prediction system that uses behavioral signals to estimate a user’s age rather than relying solely on self-reported checkboxes. The goal, she said, is to correctly identify teenage users without mistakenly flagging adults.

OpenAI has acknowledged that age prediction alone may not be sufficient in all jurisdictions. In some regions, the company plans to introduce government ID verification through third-party providers, particularly where local laws require stronger safeguards.

Simo emphasized that the company wants to avoid two common failures seen in other platforms. One is letting minors slip through. The other is blocking adults incorrectly, which can erode trust and usability.

Adult Mode will not be enabled by default.

Users will need to actively opt in and complete the verification process before gaining access. Teen users will remain under stricter content rules, with adult features unavailable to them.

OpenAI says this cautious rollout reflects lessons learned from traditional age verification systems, which have often proven easy to bypass. The company is attempting to balance safety, privacy, and usability at a scale that now exceeds 800 million weekly users worldwide.

The timing of the announcement comes as the market for AI-generated sexual content continues to grow. Studies suggest that roughly 16 percent of adults already engage in weekly intimate conversations with AI chatbots, while AI erotica tools generate hundreds of thousands of images daily. Industry estimates place the AI erotica market at roughly $2.5 billion in 2025.

OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman has previously said the company should “treat adult users like adults,” confirming in October that erotica would eventually be available to verified users. The planned Adult Mode also arrives amid intensifying competition. Elon Musk’s Grok has already embraced adult and sexual content, and Google’s Gemini models are rapidly improving, prompting OpenAI to internally declare what it has described as a “code red” push to maintain its lead.

The company is also under financial pressure. Despite its massive user base, OpenAI is reportedly losing billions of dollars annually and does not expect profitability until at least the end of the decade. Expanding into adult-oriented use cases is widely seen as one potential revenue lever, though OpenAI has not framed Adult Mode explicitly as a monetization strategy.

Simo said OpenAI expects to spend much of 2025 refining age prediction, verification workflows, and safety systems before enabling Adult Mode in the United States. The company has not named the countries where testing is currently underway.

If the rollout stays on schedule, ChatGPT will enter 2026 with a version that allows explicit adult conversations alongside its existing roles as a work, education, and general-purpose assistant. How that shift reshapes the platform, and the broader internet, remains an open question.