OpenAI Forms Well-Being Council as Altman Eases ChatGPT Adult Content Restrictions

OpenAI announced Tuesday that it has formed an Expert Council on Well-Being and AI, a group of academics and nonprofit leaders tasked with helping the company navigate how its products affect mental health.

“Their role is to advise us, pose questions, and help define what healthy interactions with AI should look like for all ages,” the firm said in a statement.

The eight-member panel includes researchers from Harvard, Stanford, Oxford, and other institutions, who will help shape guidelines.

“Our work with the council will include regular check-ins on our approach, and recurring meetings to explore topics like how AI should behave in complex or sensitive situations and what kinds of guardrails can best support people using ChatGPT,” OpenAI added.

AI and public safety

OpenAI and other AI companies have faced increasing pressure over how the technology influences users, particularly children. The company, along with others in the industry, have faced lawsuits from parents alleging that AI conversations contributed to teen suicides, prompting OpenAI to introduce parental controls earlier this year. Others have blamed dependence on the chatbots for breakdowns in relationships and increased isolation.

The creation of the well-being council following public pressure highlights an ongoing issue in the tech sector where companies only confront the psychological and ethical consequences of products once they are already in mass circulation. Critics say it’s a familiar cycle of innovation first, accountability later.

“This seems part of the usual pattern of move fast, break things, and try to fix some things after they get embarrassing,” a spokesperson for NGO AlgorithmWatch told Decrypt.

AlgorithmWatch also questioned how independent the new council would be, noting OpenAI’s history of internal power struggles. “We should remember that when the previous OpenAI board tried to have an impact by expressing their distrust in Sam Altman, they were all removed and replaced,” they added.

AlgorithmWatch suggested that a ““slightly better (but still limited) precedent” might be the Meta Oversight Board, noting that while their recommendations are “often very slow and frequently ignored,” the board provides “clear recommendations and public enough that people can see what Meta is ignoring.”

Shady El Damaty, co-founder of Holonym and a digital rights advocate, told Decrypt he found it “ironic” that the same companies racing to deploy the most powerful AI tools are now positioning themselves as “moral referees.”

“But these conversations are urgent and overdue, so I won’t knock the existence of the council. If anything, I hope it raises the floor for everyone,” he added.

In addition to wellbeing, he said he’d like to see the Council address issues around privacy and identity too. “At a minimum, the council should establish transparent and public metrics for measuring AI’s emotional impact and mandate regular, independent audits,” he said. “But we really need hardened rules and regulations that protect our digital rights, and we need them sooner rather than later.”

OpenAI’s Expert Council “has a chance to go deeper than safety,” he added. “They should be asking: What rights do people have in digital spaces? Who owns their identity, their behavior, their likeness? What does human-first design actually look like… not just for kids, but for everyone?”

OpenAI eases adult content restrictions

The company’s renewed focus on well-being also coincided with CEO Sam Altman’s announcement that OpenAI will also begin relaxing restrictions, including on adult content, come December.

“We made ChatGPT pretty restrictive to make sure we were being careful with mental health issues,” Altman tweeted on the same day.

“We realize this made it less useful/enjoyable to many users who had no mental health problems, but given the seriousness of the issue we wanted to get this right.”

Altman said verified adults will soon be allowed to create erotica using ChatGPT, describing it as part of a broader principle to “treat adult users like adults.”