OpenAI to relax ChatGPT restrictions and introduce more human-like features

New Delhi: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, in a recent social media post, announced that the company plans to roll out a new version of ChatGPT, which is less restrictive (in terms of mental health issues) and has more customisable personality options.

In the post shared on X, Altman mentioned that the initial restrictions were designed to ensure the platform handled sensitive topics, especially mental health, responsibly.

We made ChatGPT pretty restrictive to make sure we were being careful with mental health issues. 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.

Now that we have…

— Sam Altman (@sama) October 14, 2025

Altman said, “We made ChatGPT pretty restrictive to make sure we were being careful with mental health issues.” He further said, “We realise this made it less useful or enjoyable to many users who had no mental health problems.”

OpenAI now intends to “safely relax the restrictions in most cases” with new safety tools in place. The upcoming version will allow users to interact with ChatGPT in a more natural tone, much like ChatGPT 4o.

Altman said, “If you want your ChatGPT to respond in a very human-like way, or use a ton of emoji, or act like a friend, ChatGPT should do it.” This is all according to user preference.

Altman also mentioned the changes to be introduced by December to implement age-gated features as part of its “treat adult users like adults” principle. This update will introduce more mature content options, such as erotica, for verified adult users.