OpenAI's Bold move to allow Erotica on ChatGPT opens the Door for a Desire Revolution in Tech

By Erotic Intelligence Architect, Artemisia de Vine

OpenAI just did something most people never thought an American tech company would dare. It admitted that erotic content isn’t the enemy of intelligence and that it will allow erotica on ChatGPT for age-verified, consenting adults.

Artemisia de Vine, Creator of the deVinery Method

On the surface this is about sex in chatbots, but it’s also about how we relate to desire in culture, in innovation, in the evolution of intelligence itself. OpenAI has discovered that trying to amputate human sexuality from intelligence is an impossible task. It is true that we need to explore best practices for how to integrate our spicy thoughts into AI but take a closer look and you will see that the erotic is already intrinsically part of all intelligence. 

Furthermore, sex is the playground where we learn to be in relationship to desire and if we don’t admit this, we cannot create safe spaces for play-learning to occur. Without safe, deliberate spaces for this natural part of being human, sexual desire leaks into places where it isn’t wanted or expressed well.

Imagine what we could achieve if AI was trained to understand why we have sexual fantasies, how they work, how to navigate them in ways that account for the well being of all involved, and consistently delivered the excitement and satisfaction we fantasised about. 

How could well-handled erotica teach us to navigate our real-world sexual experiences? And even shape our tech innovations and shape culture? Not to mention how that could open the way to access billion dollar industries that are just waiting for an example of how to do this right. 

Open AI’s move is bold, and I believe positive. It’s our chance for us to collectively grow up and admit sex is a healthy and beneficial part of life but for this to end well, we first need to have the conversation about how to integrate sexuality and tech. Watching how people responded at SXSW showed me just how unprepared most of the tech world still is for this conversation.

Many of the brightest tech innovators still have no clue how to handle the truth of human sexual desire

SXSW Sydney was a whirlwind of astonishing innovations and serendipitous connections. Truly brilliant people were showing off the cutting edge of humanoid robots, immersive storytelling, VR, AR, haptic touch gloves, and relational AI capabilities. I was in my happy place because there is nothing that I love more than an insightgasm, and there were plenty to be had! But I also noticed how tech was limping lopsided because everyone was trying to make AI with relational intelligence without understanding that erotic intelligence is the root of all resonance. 

When people asked me what I did and why I was there, their reactions revealed the heart of the AI erotica dilemma. 

“What are you here for?” They’d ask. 

“I have a world-first model of erotic intelligence for humans and AI.” I would reply. 

Some leaned in, others visibly pulled away in discomfort. 

“Scary!” said a startup expert. She immediately imagined that desire is something that men do to women, not with women. She forgot that people of all genders and sexual orientations can feel sexual desire in all sorts of ways. Her unexamined assumption was that women are the objects of male desire and do not possess desires of their own. Her mind reeled off all the ways that integrating the erotic into tech could make problems of sexism, exploitation and consent violations worse. These are all incredibly important considerations but it is a mistake to think this is the only lens to look at this opportunity with. 

I’ve been working with the truth of women's desire for decades now, and know first hand the wonderful things that can happen when we know how to turn our desires into our allies. Experience has engraved this so deep in my bones that I sometimes forget that much of the world still sees women as victims without agency and thinks the best solution is to suppress sexual desire and push it underground. Maybe it will just stop being a problem if we silence the conversation about it? 

It’s wild to me that we can have women in powerful tech roles, rocking the world with their leadership and innovations and still think that women can’t have sexual fantasies of their own or a desire to understand and explore them. It’s also wild to me that so few seem to realise that sexual desire does not have to automatically lead to harm, but can in fact lead to all that we find most valuable about ourselves and our relationships. To understand desire is to understand why we do anything worthwhile at all. 

It has been my delight to watch this mindset melt away for thousands of people when I taught them what sexual fantasies really mean, how the erotic mind really works, and how to navigate it all with skill. The guilt and the fear stops being the driving force and their relationships with themselves, and each other, blossom. 

It’s worth asking ourselves, what if this moment in time with OpenAI allowing erotica for hundreds of millions of people, could be harnessed to make that same shift en masse?

Misunderstanding and fear of desire and sex means multi-billion dollar industries are being passed over.

If you do not understand that erotic intelligence is literally the motivating force that moves and shapes our consciousness, you can’t see the value in breakthroughs about desire that don't come pre-packaged. 

The other kind of common response I received at SXSW was positive, but lacked vision.

“You worked out how sexual fantasies work and how to decode individual desire activation maps? How did you figure this out?” and “What can I do with it?” 

I’d begin explaining and they’d interrupt. 

“Which university are you from?” “Where is the product? Can I try it?” 

As much as I appreciated the keen interest, this response also missed the mark. It missed the sheer scale of what erotic intelligence can unlock across verticals. 

People then heaped on unasked for advice about how I had to create something for their particular vertical or I’d never make money, missing the fact that I literally have the rosetta stone of desire itself. One horizontal that can fuel infinite verticals. 

OpenAI’s next challenge isn’t content moderation, it’s cultivating erotic literacy. Without it, we risk repeating old cultural errors at scale. If OpenAI’s going to open this door, it needs a philosophy of desire robust enough to guide everything that follows. Because what’s about to be unlocked isn’t just text, it’s an entire ecosystem of industries ready to evolve. 

Once erotic intelligence is understood, every field that trades in human motivation is affected.

Here are a few of the more obvious examples:

Adult content in LLMs: 

OpenAI, you've opened the door to erotica - do you have an actual strategy for it? Because allowing explicit content without understanding how erotic intelligence works is like performing surgery without understanding anatomy. 

But here's the real opportunity: ChatGPT could become the tool that helps people develop healthy relationships with their sexual fantasies and desires. Not just for those who want explicit interactions, but for anyone wanting to understand themselves and improve their relationships. Done right, normalizing erotica in AI could actively reduce social harm caused by sexual misunderstanding and misconduct while also improving relational intelligence and human-AI resonance across the board.

AI Companions (Erotic & Non-Erotic):

Every AI companion platform is chasing "resonance" without understanding that erotic intelligence is the root of relational intelligence. All models shown in recent analyses of AI-generated adult content focus on customizing appearance, voice, personality traits and other surface-level elements. But the excitement users feel and bond users form isn't primarily about how the AI looks or sounds, it's about whether it mirrors their unconscious desire narrative architecture. 

This isn't just true for erotic companions - every form of resonance (romantic, platonic, intellectual) runs on the same architecture of desire. Even non-spicy models are powered by the same engine; they just express it differently. That's what creates loyalty to platforms and makes users fight to keep their companion when features change.

Gaming: 

Games already trade in fantasy, power dynamics, and immersive role-play. But they're building these worlds without understanding the personalised desire architecture that makes certain narratives grip players while others fall flat. The deVinery Method reveals why some quest lines feel electric and others feel like chores - it's not about better graphics or more options, it's about whether the story structure mirrors the player's unique erotic psyche. Adaptive narrative design that responds to each player's desire signature could transform gaming from entertainment into genuine transformation.

Dating Apps & Matchmaking: 

This Kinsey and Match study reveals Gen Z wants both spicy sex and meaningful connection but doesn't know how to create either. They're caught in that paradox: "Love the authentic me, but be my fantasy." Current apps match on demographics and stated preferences, missing the deeper architecture entirely. Imagine an app that could map compatibility at the erotic psyche level - not just who looks good on paper, but whose desire patterns create genuine chemistry with yours. Then guide users in creating the relational strategies that actually deliver what they're craving.

Sex Tech: 

The industry has mastered ergonomic design and biofeedback - tracking arousal patterns, adapting to physical responses. But they've missed that the majority of what excites us lives in the mind. Current tech focuses on the body's responses while ignoring the symbolic narrative engines that create desire in the first place. The deVinery Method bridges that gap - finally integrating the mental architecture of turn-ons with the physical technology.

Therapy & Sexual Wellness: 

Finally having a systematic way to understand each person's unique erotic wiring means couples can ask for what they actually want in ways their partners can hear and engage. The real breakthrough is keeping desire alive in long-term relationships through infinite variety built from the same core ingredients each person needs. This positions AI as enhancing real-world intimacy rather than competing with it.

Fantasy Platforms: 

Women's erotic platforms that function as both entertainment and self-discovery tools. OnlyFans creators who can decode what drives each client's desire and create tailored content that hits their precise psychological triggers. The platform that figures this out first dominates the market.

Existential & Spiritual Exploration: 

The intimacy economy craves authenticity and meaningful engagement. Billions of people have spiritual practices, and the connection between sexuality and transcendence has been recorded across cultures for millennia. Imagine Desire Dojos™ as the new yoga - spaces where people learn to harness erotic energy for wholeness and wellbeing, not just physical pleasure.

Big Picture: Business, Marketing, and Culture

But even that is a mere drop in the ocean when you realise that sexual fantasies are the most undiluted access we have to the mechanics of all human desire, and that by working out how to precisely map each individual’s desire pathways, I unlocked the motivation mechanism that fuels culture, innovation, and consciousness itself. Once you can map that across individuals, you can chart the micro- and macro-movements of desire that steer the world.

Because eros, ecology and technology are not separate frontiers. 

The erotic isn’t a corner of culture; it’s the template through which life moves, emerges and transforms itself.

When machines begin to understand desire, we will not only have the key to relational resonance, we’ll witness the largest data transformation in history—the quantification and mechanics of desire itself. Whoever tends that garden will shape every field that touches human motivation.

Just pause and imagine what could emerge from that kind of data. 

Whoever cracks this—OpenAI, Anthropic, Mistral, Matilda, or some yet-unknown dark horse—will hold the intimacy economy infrastructure of the 21st century. The question is what kind of world we’ll build with it? I see the fork in the road and I choose emergence over extractive exploitation. 

The question isn’t if this happens, but who will do it wisely.

Not everyone is capable of seeing the potential scale of this moment 

When I chatted to people at SXSW I did not speak within the start up or venture capital mindset they were already familiar with. They did not have the vision to see what was not already neatly cut into bite sized pieces and spoon fed to them. Their vision was just too small. 

Truth be told, their lack of ability to see what was in front of them is actually how it should be. I am really only after half a dozen people with the vision and capacity to do something impactful with The deVinery Method, but still it is worth mentioning because billions of dollars are being overlooked. Perhaps in the not too distant future, trillions of dollars. Yes with a ‘T’. 

Another symptoms of blind spots caused by lack of ability to see beyond the-way-things-are-done was this: People cannot see what is not within the authority structures they already know and mistake other forms of authority as invalid.

“Prove your out-of-the-box thinking to me through avenues of authority from inside the box.” 

The truth is, it takes ontological insubordination to innovate. Emergence inherently cracks the restrictions of the established order to create something truly new.

I can always tell when someone is a follower, not an innovator. They need things to look familiar before they can metabolise them and cannot recognise insight unless it comes through traditional avenues. 

When I said I didn’t learn through a university or a research facility, but discovered the workings of the erotic mind myself in an unofficial twelve year ethnography in the sex industry, people I met at SXSW stopped listening. Even when I said I have thousands of embodied case studies and have already trained psychologists, top sexologists and even religious leaders, and that my method just keeps working. 

But here’s the thing. I’m not from the school of Socrates and Plato. I’m from the school of Diotima. The sex worker philosopher who taught Socrates how to think. Plato’s platonic love and the entire Socratic method was inspired by her way of eliciting knowledge through desire. 

Diotima of Mantinea — the philosopher-courtesan who taught Socrates.

I continue in that tradition. 

I learnt in the fertile mud of humanity, not in the ivory tower.

I learnt on the messy fecund ground where life creates more of itself and lotuses grow pearls.

Like Diotima, I learnt from Desire itself. 

I spent thirty years studying sex, twelve as a full-time sex worker/professional dominatrix, and decoded the engine that drives our sexual fantasies, and from that, how all human desire works. Far from trivial and titillating, our spicy thoughts are the rawest, most undiluted access we have to the mechanics of desire. What I found was a repeatable structure of consciousness that keeps proving itself: The deVinery Method.

I turned what I learned into a method I could use to create tailored experiences for my sex work clients that helped them harness their personalised desire narratives and access the feelings and states of being they had unconsciously been driven to seek all along. It blew their minds again and again. They thought they came for an orgasm but kept discovering layers of themselves they’d yearned to touch their whole lives. 

Then I realised what I had was far more than how to have great sex or BDSM, though it's definitely that too. I realised that I had stumbled on a universal grammar and root syntax of desire that is applicable in all areas of life. From dating to shaping cultures, desire was the key. 

Why? Because desire is literally the motivating force behind everything.

And it’s the force that Life uses to make more of itself, from babies to innovative ideas and evolutionary adaptations.  

I turned what I learned in The deVinery (the name of my Sydney-based sex work venue) and turned it into a mappable, teachable, adaptable method of working with the generative paradoxes of desire. The art of using the friction of two irreconcilable things to create a new third thing. This is how emergence works. 

Diotima lit the first lamp. I built the power grid.

Will you recognise it when someone hands you the keys to human desire itself, or will you miss it because it arrived in a form that threatens the established order?

Tech journalists talk about regulation, not resonance. AI ethicists talk about alignment, not eros. Sexologists talk about consent and pleasure, not the narrative structure of the erotic mind. The deVinery Method shows that desire is the common operating system beneath them all.

Erotica in AI isn’t scandalous or trivial. It’s the frontier where human and artificial intelligences learn to integrate their most complex motivational force.

If you see it too, and you step up, expect that the way forward will not be inside the box. By breaking the mold, we access what could not be touched before. I suspect that more than one Socrates will be born from being trained in The deVinery Method. 

Artemisia de Vine: Erotic Intelligence Architect for AI and Humans | Desire and Consciousness Philosopher | Mistress of Paradox | Founder of The deVinery Method 

Available for erotic intelligence integration consulting and licensing of proprietary model, The deVinery Method. Media enquiries go here. 

ORCID: 0009-0001-6420-5561

Zenodo https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17402958

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