OpenAI has announced that ChatGPT will soon allow erotic and sexually explicit interactions for adult users. As millions already use AI to simulate friendship and even romance, this move will likely increase the number of people in personal, emotionally significant relationships with AI companions.

Erotic features aren’t just another product update; they deepen emotional dependency and encourage people to treat AI companions as partners rather than tools. This shift opens the door to what I call “intimate advertising” — a powerful new form of manipulation in which tech companies shape human desire and manipulate users for profit.

AI companions collect enormous amounts of data on users, and can leverage this knowledge and their personal relationship to make persuasive pitches on behalf of third-party companies. Imagine your AI friend tries to convince you to buy new hiking boots. They know your hobbies, how stressed you’ve been, when your favorite brand has a sale, and can drop a link at the precise moment you are most emotionally primed to buy.