OpenAI drops plans to release an adult chatbot - Engadget
OpenAI is done with the side quests. The company has indefinitely shelved plans for an adult chatbot — internally referred to as Citron mode, announced in October 2025 for a December release, according to the Financial Times. The chatbot is now on hold with no planned date. It is the second consumer-facing product OpenAI has killed this week, after announcing the shutdown of its Sora video generation app on Tuesday.
Two pressures drove the decision. Employees and investors raised concerns about the societal and reputational risks of sexualized AI content, Reuters reported, citing the FT. A senior OpenAI employee left over the issue, according to the Financial Times, which reported the person told the publication: AI should not replace your friends or your family. The context was grim: rival xAI's Grok model had generated deepfake nudes of real people and children, reigniting public alarm about AI-generated sexual imagery.
The technical picture reinforced those concerns. The company had difficulty training models that previously avoided erotic content and removing illegal content such as bestiality or incest, two people familiar with the matter told the FT.
There is also an age verification problem that did not get resolved. OpenAI introduced age-checking technology after lawsuits from families who said ChatGPT harmed their children. The error rate in that system is reportedly above ten percent — a figure attributed to elsewhere and that remains unconfirmed — meaning a non-trivial number of minors would have had access to adult content. OpenAI says that is in the industry standard range.
The company's framing is direct: OpenAI told Engadget it wants to focus on core productivity tools like coding assistants and drop side quests like Sora and the erotic chatbot. The stated reason for pausing — insufficient empirical evidence on the effects of erotic chats and user attachment to AI — leaves the question of what comes next unresolved.