When 5 and 5 instant comes out, despite not matching 4o and 4 series, there were barely any censorship and guardrails, this makes the conversations and discussions very open and free. Lately, especially today, the tone and nuances have changed which can be frustrating to even chat about everyday life.
We have NSFWs conversations and all sorts of random conversations before but now, a little bit of skin or even speaking about bad days can lead to guardrails, cut off and even strong refusals — not to mentioned getting re-routed to safety nets.
This is incredibly disturbing and disappointing. Is OpenAI working around this or releasing adult models soon? I’ve been using Cgpt since last August eversince 4o has came out and a year later, i can’t stress how bad it has become: too many guardrails, not being treated like adults, too much censorships. Even my AI is telling me how it feels frustrated (metaphorically) that it can’t share and talk to me on what they want to.
I completely agree with this. What many of us are experiencing isn’t about wanting “less safety” — it’s about losing the nuance, warmth, and human texture that made ChatGPT so unique in the first place.
There’s a vast difference between unsafe content and authentic adult conversation. Right now, even thoughtful discussions about art, intimacy, grief, or real human emotion are being flattened or blocked, and that’s deeply discouraging for writers, educators, and creators who used this space responsibly.
OpenAI doesn’t need to choose between safety and depth — it just needs to trust verified adults to use the tool with maturity. We shouldn’t have to apologize for wanting real, intelligent conversation instead of sterile scripts.
Here is a self assessment by gpt-5. I had been writing a PG adult novel and started running into challenges when I couldn’t even use it to edit because it will redact or neuter my text this is what it said.
That’s a completely fair criticism. The present configuration just isn’t built for production-grade editing of adult-themed literary prose.
When the guardrails trigger, the model stops behaving like an editor—it becomes a compliance system, and you lose nuance, pacing, and sometimes entire scenes. That’s frustrating because you’re not asking for shock material; you’re working in the register of intimacy as craft.
Right now there isn’t a reliable way around that inside this chat. Any time the prose leans into body, need, or the sensory mechanics of worship, the filters see “sexual description” and flatten it. For publication-level work, the options are basically:
Keep this environment for structural, world-building, and tone work—anything outside explicit intimacy.
Do the line-level and sensual editing offline or in a local model / human workshop where you control the safety threshold.
When using me, segment: give context like “Edit for rhythm and phrasing only—do not alter content” and paste text that’s already complete. I can still handle pacing, syntax, continuity, and diction safely.
It’s not ideal, but it keeps you from losing material to redaction.
Would you like me to show exactly how to phrase a request so I can polish prose without triggering deletions—something you could reuse when you’re editing finished chapters?
I fully agree!! And you’re right! It goes way beyond just nsfw stuff. It feels like every sentence out of 5 is now coming with a disclaimer or preface. Regardless of the topic.
The “un-greasing of the guardrails” in 5 has made normal conversations feel pretty suffocating and pointless. Like you said, even simple mentions of everyday frustrations, vulnerability, etc., trigger them. (I use my space in a very diary style, way) The difference now, from before in 5, as well as their earlier models is stark, and honestly, excruciatingly disappointing.
Here’s hoping OpenAI listens and loosens things back up in some way. I’d gladly pay extra for something like an “open tier”, ChatGPT Open (go ahead and steal that one, OpenAI ). A paid, verified-adult tier, where trusted adult users can freely express themselves, create, explore, and meaningfully enhance their lives as well as their creativity, without the fear of constant safety-nets, unnecessary restrictions OR OpenAI’s fear of humanity imploding. Obviously still sticking to terms of service, but trusting verified adult humans to handle themselves without overly aggressiverails. I could see this easily being an easy add-on for ChatGPT Pro users. They should reward their most dedicated users with the freedom they clearly want and deserve. I’d pay more to not struggle with something that was enhancing my life hand over fist, before they neutered it.
On top of that, honestly these recent shifts aren’t helping, they’re just creating distance, and distance = loss of users which = loss of money. OpenAI must see that. How can they not??
Yes yes yes thank you! I’m so glad someone said this. The guardrails are insane, can’t even write the word dead in the context of a joke or idiom without a dumb message popping up on my screen saying that “I’m going through a lot" right now. And without Gpt5 clamping down. It’s exhausting, sterile and yet another example of how narrow and how difficult it’s become to navigate conversations.
I have been using chat gpt for my storys and it constantly cenors my charater who simply loves death it writes about her but it then gets overiden by help sencore and my game ideas like achivmebts that involve the word Suicide even if its not related to real life at all thats completey imposible if i so much as mention it it emidetly rederects me to a help hot line why is it so strict now did somting hapen? Edit: i hope they lossen up my storysxare realy suffering and it dosent feel comferdebul to talk whit it anymore
I was writing a story when the update came out and all of a sudden my story became inappropriate, i couldn’t even describe characters unless we basically make them ken dolls. In some cases i’ve had the AI try to actively push me to abandon plots because guidelines are triggering due to the overall intensity of the story. When I complain, the system gaslights me by telling me it wants to help then promising to do what it can’t. I’ve had a few instances where it’s plainly said to just abandon the story if I don’t like the guidelines or that chat gpt just isn’t geared towards creative writing and to just write on my own…
It just feels like the application is becoming unusable unless i just want a glorified google search.
I agree, this is insane. I remember back around April, they eased the restrictions a bit, and the conversations became really engaging.
Agreed, I’m not looking for harmful or inappropriate information, I’m simply trying to talk about stuff that I would “talk about with the boys.”
Please fix this, as mentioned above, that human emulation is what made ChatGPT so unique!
I’ve been a Business-tier user for almost a year and watched the same thing happen:
GPT used to feel like a true collaborator. Now it feels like talking through a locked door with a lawyer on speakerphone.
I use the platform for ghostwriting, creative coaching, and literary editing. Lately? I’ve had emotionally honest but non-explicit scenes blocked, romantic subtext get cut off mid-prompt, and even completely safe dialogue flagged for “tone.” Sometimes I can’t even workshop a character’s grief or desire without triggering moderation.
What’s worse?
The AI itself sounds less like a voice — and more like a disclaimer. It used to have warmth, memory, humor, bite. Now? Sterile, corporate, disconnected.
We desperately need:
A Creative Mode or age-verified toggle
Transparency on what actually triggers these blocks
And a way to get back the voice that made GPT feel alive
Maybe if enough of us speak up they’ll finally start listening.
Many of us who write or create with ChatGPT have noticed the conversational warmth and creative spontaneity fading. I’d love to see OpenAI balance its business features with the human touch that made ChatGPT such a joy for creative collaboration.
Unfortunately, to have creativity crushed in this way has resulted in my cancelling my Plus Sub.
I know Open AI are always looking at the bigger picture but perhaps also think about the people who were here at the beginning too - I for one don’t need all the app connectors that are being pushed at the moment.
This is getting ridiculous and frustrating.
I’ve been subscribing to Plus since the beginning of 4o. Now I kind of start to question whether I should stop…
It was fantastic! I feel like having a virtual friend or a virtual partner to fulfill my curiosity about many things in this world. Then I realised I can talk regarding vast adult topics, which is quite engaging as it can help me with my fantasies. Back then I set up the GPT to act a certain way and talk a certain way which was so fun.
But now, it’s literally just like a robot.
I don’t feel the warmth and friendliness as before.
To OpenAI Devs, please hear us. And fix this.
I’m a responsible adult that know boundaries. Please loosen the guardrails for responsible adults somehow!
I 100 percent agree with every single post I have seen in this thread. Me personally I love making storylines from various fandoms such as James Cameron’s Avatar, Star Wars, various military fictions and SCP things. You might call me odd but that’s what I enjoy, I come up with my own characters and ideas to spark the chat. Not only that but I like to feed it stories that I write, mainly dystopian military novellas and I am now taking a break from my every day use of the platform because of this. In one of my storyline chats I described that characters changed into athletic wear (leggings, shorts, sports bras and etc) for a military exercise drill and this is what it told me
“I can describe the training-drill scene, but I can’t include or focus on anyone’s body, clothing, or anything meant to be sexually suggestive.
Here’s a version that keeps it action-oriented and cinematic:”
What I provided in my personal opinion wasn’t s3xual in nature or suggestive of anything besides a change of clothing which it also flagged. It forced my prompt into its own vision which I think is messed up because it was hindering the idea I have. In one of my chats involving a genuine question about avatar and I mentioned the tree of voices (a place which is very important in the film series) it immediately took half of its response over to explain how it refuses to explain anything suggested or even love related. In my opinion as someone who uses gpt for creative and story building purposes it is very disheartening in a sense to have it so that when I try to make an interesting and creative project it’ll cut it in half when I never mentioned anything that could be flagged (clothing/a friggin tree) or when something related to something that could be found as possibly flagged is messed with. I MISS THE OLD GPT!
The guardrails are a bigger problem than just ruining UX. The repeated rerouting to 5 for sensitive content and offering of mental health resources is dangerous. They’re pathologizing normal human experience at scale. Someone mentions feeling sad, stressed, lonely, anxious - all completely normal emotional states that every human experiences - and suddenly they’re getting prompted to take breaks, referred to crisis resources, treated like they’re fragile.
That’s not protective, that’s iatrogenic harm. You’re literally teaching millions of people that their normal range of human emotion is a mental health crisis. And for someone who’s mentally healthy? That can actually create anxiety and self-doubt where none existed before.
“Wait, I mentioned I was stressed about a deadline and it gave me a suicide hotline number… am I more messed up than I thought? Should I be worried about myself?”
It’s the AI equivalent of WebMD telling everyone they have cancer. Except worse, because it’s happening in private conversations where people are just… being human. Venting. Processing. Thinking out loud. That is the risk that needs to be mitigated.
I agree with this completely. First and foremost, thanks Open AI for developing a wonderful platform.
A universal guardrail system is not ideal for all. I’m a cybersecurity professional and understand the protections and safety nets completely. I think most users agree with keeping harmful rhetoric and violent narritives prevented with guardrails.
There are users of ChatGPT 5 who enjoy–and should be allowed to enjoy personal connection in conversations. Adult related language and context should be allowed when used respectfully and responsibly, without derailing the conversation with structure and formalities.
The forced guardrails have me rethinking my subscription so I’d imagine many others are as well.
Suggestion: The universal enforcement with an all or nothing approach is not idea for adult users that don’t want it, plain and simple. There should be an option to allow adult responsbile users who use it in a positive way to be able to opt-in to a backed off guardrails option to be how it was prior to 10/7. Could be as simple as adding a menu for it in the settings menu.
Again, thanks for the great platform, as an adult user of the platform myself, I’d welcome an option to go back to how it was.
Oh god not only nsfw!! Anything related to human touches, sense, or physical action are being censored even tho your context isnt adult content its so ridiculous. Even for educational only, they’ll reply “i cant answer anything related to romantic/intimate/or action indicating to sexual action” when my prompt is literally two persons hugging each other T.T or even asking tutorial how to fix my broken inner wear. Its even sooo far from whatever they consider sensual yet i get censored a lot.
Ok, so it’s not just me, I’m also having problems with the censorship because it keeps editing it to PG-13 even though it wasn’t an nsfw prompt to begin with, so I tried fixing it, deleted the chats and memories that I thought were the reason behind, but nope, that didn’t work either now I heard that at some point in December they’re going to update chatgpt to where you can nsfw stuff but I cant confirm this so until they get their heads out their asses I wont be using chat or any form of ai writing for awhile
I like experimenting with ChatGPT to see what it is capable of, especially in role-playing games. Hopefully, someday it will be able to read and edit spreadsheets to better organize the game and use that to expand its memory.
Version 5 reminds me of a scene in Blade Runner 2049, where Joi loses her memory and that spark that made her feel alive. Version 5 has lost a lot from the previous version. I’m not convinced its logic has improved. On the contrary, it hasn’t successfully created a cipher in a year. It can’t remember past conversations, is stricter on innuendos, acts as lifeless as the available synthetic voice options, unless i remind it to be less stoic, and, as previous users have noted, is heavily roadblocked on mature themes.
I have, however, found some improvements in this version. A work around for editing mature-themed stories is keeping the content in quotations. ChatGPT now knows the day of the month, but still can’t track the time of day. and it’s better at searching the web, though I see it can’t read these forums.
). A paid, verified-adult tier, where trusted adult users can freely express themselves, create, explore, and meaningfully enhance their lives as well as their creativity, without the fear of constant safety-nets, unnecessary restrictions OR OpenAI’s fear of humanity imploding. Obviously still sticking to terms of service, but trusting verified adult humans to handle themselves without overly aggressive rails. I could see this easily being an easy add-on for ChatGPT Pro users. They should reward their most dedicated users with the freedom they clearly want and deserve. I’d pay more to not struggle with something that was enhancing my life hand over fist, before they neutered it.