OpenAI’s Pivot to Porn Is Problematic — But Lucrative

When you’re building artificial intelligence to benefit humanity, you might have to compromise. AI is expensive, so you raise billions of dollars from investors like Microsoft Corp, Nvidia Corp. and the United Arab Emirates. As you strive to build super-intelligent computers that will cure cancer, you also need to make money for your backers. So, after pitching your powerful chatbot technology to businesses, who struggle to make it useful, your next option may be monetizing your enormous user base of 800 million weekly visitors — with a sex bot.

That’s the ignoble trajectory of OpenAI under Sam Altman, who’s made a career of justifying opportunistic business moves — like inflating the AI bubble with circular dealmaking or releasing a TikTok clone — with the promise that his tech will eventually, one day, solve intractable human problems. There’s little evidence that OpenAI’s systems will do that, but in the short term it can make some money, especially with erotic roleplay.