Thursday Thoughts – Open AI Reveals Their Trillion-Dollar Plan

Sam Altman dropped the bombshell Tuesday: ChatGPT is getting an “Adult Mode” in December 2025, allowing verified 18+ users to generate and access erotica. After months of complaints that ChatGPT was “too restrictive” and “less useful,” Altman’s solution is to embrace what the internet has known since 1994: sex sells.

His justification? “We are not the elected moral police of the world“. Translation: “We’ve promised $1.6 trillion to Oracle, Nvidia, AMD, and Microsoft but only have $13 billion in revenue and are burning $8 billion a year, so… desperate times call for desperate measures!“

This is BRILLIANT!!! At least, financially, if not morally: The Global Adult Entertainment Market is $200 BILLION per year – and that is without counting the “freak-offs” and private island flesh auctions favored by the ultra-wealthy (those files are apparently hard to find, no matter how many times Congress asks). Even today, after 30 years of Internet – porn is still growing at 8.6% CAGR – better than most tech sectors.

By comparison, the NFL generates $12Bn/yr, Netflix (NFLX) has just $45Bn in annual revenues… And, unlike the NFL but much like Netflix, 85% of porn revenue is generated from the Internet, 70% from advertising and 20% from subscriptions, where profit margins for “service” providers hovers around 50%.

Porn is already the go-to use of VR/AR technology with $19Bn of projected revenues with 45% of adult content providers already integrating VR/AR with their products. The AI-powered “SexTech” market was $42.5Bn in 2024 and is projected to hit $107.85Bn by 2030 (16.7% CARG) – it would be irresponsible to their newly for-profit shareholders if Sam Altman didn’t become a porn-monger, right?  

They are already putting AI into sex dolls, which is a $350M industry, at the moment (Howard Stern’s crew visited the factory) and sex robots are just a matter of incremental improvements. Pornography has actually always been a historical driver of technology with porn accounting for 30% of all Internet traffic in the 90s (and before that 50% of all videotape sales) and porn was the driving force that brought us Secure On-Line Credit Card Transactions, Video Streaming Technology, drove Bandwidth Demand (anyone who waited for Prodigy to render boobies knows this!), Video Compression Algorithms, E-Commerce, Live Streaming and now, Virtual Reality – all researched and perfected based on demand from the cash-flowing PORN industry… 

There is no “Magnificent 7” of porn, the space is pure Capitalism with tens of thousands of competitors and that is what drives constant innovation as market share is always up for grabs. That is why this is such a great roll-up opportunity for OpenAI – but only if they take the first-mover advantage and, apparently, that’s what they intend to do!   

Not to stroke their egos (or anything else!) but consumers of adult content are early adopters who crave immersive experiences and are willing to invest in new hardware/software to get it. They become the first market for non-pornographic applications of the same technology. Adult entertainment companies have massive incentives to be on the cutting edge – the race to captivate audiences drives early technology adoption.

Without pornographers’ innovations in online payments and secure transactions, there might be no online banking, no eBay, no Amazon. They literally commercialized the internet. The adult industry pioneered live streaming and “cam girl” interactive platforms in the early 2000s – technology that later became Twitch, YouTube Live, and Instagram Live. The business model of tipping performers and subscription-based access? Developed by adult entertainment, adopted by mainstream.

As noted by technology historian Patchen Barss: “Pornographers are not necessarily the inventors of new technologies, but they are the first to use them and thus drive consumer adoption“. Once a technology works for porn users, it flows down to mainstream applications.

Think about what OpenAI already has:

1. 1. 1. Conversational AI that can maintain context and personality

      2. Voice synthesis that sounds human

      3. Emotional intelligence algorithms that read user sentiment

      4. Customization capabilities (Altman mentioned “more human-like, emoji-heavy, friendly tone“)​

Now combine that with physical robotics companies building sex dolls. This is the real trillion-dollar play – not just text-based erotica, but AI-powered companions that can hold conversations, remember preferences, adapt their personality to user desires and even provide emotional support…

And that brings us to LIVE porn, like strip clubs and prostitution. There are 500,000 pole-workers in the US alone and they make an average of $35,000 each ($17.5Bn) and not as many prostitutes file tax returns but probably a much larger market as there at 42 MILLION working girls world-wide and, if they are making $35,000 each, that’s a $1.47 TRILLION a year for Alman’s Sex-Bot Army to slide into.  

AI bots with ChatGPT-level intelligence could provide 24/7 “companionship” without labor costs (or pimps – other than Sam, of course) and they can scale infinitely, with the same AI powering millions of bots (“You get a ScoJo and you get a ScoJo!“) and it would eliminate venue costs (another crushing blow to CRE) without the security, regulations  and other risks and hassles that are inherent to the shady world of sex work.  

Of course, you have to get comfortable with getting your freak on with a companion whose eyes are cameras and ears are recorders… Imagine having your sexual misadventures being played back in excruciating detail to embarrass you? Oh wait, most of you are married – so you already know!  

This is textbook Creative Destruction – technology Replacing Human Labor in yet another industry. Strip clubs, escort services, cam sites – all facing an existential threat from AI + robotics convergence.

Remember Tuesday’s analysis of OpenAI’s impossible math? $1.6Tn in spending promises vs. $13Bn in current  revenue? Here’s how the porn pivot could actually work:

Phase 1: Adult ChatGPT (December 2025)

• • Subscription upsell for “Adult Mode” access

  • Premium tier for uncensored conversations

  • Estimated: $60+ million users could generate $2-5 billion if 5-10% subscribe at $10-20/month

Phase 2: Licensing AI to Sex Robot Manufacturers (2026)

• • OpenAI licenses conversation tech to Realbotix, Wmdoll, etc.

  • Takes 10-30% royalty on a $34 billion market

  • Estimated revenue: $7-$10 billion depending on market size

Phase 3: OpenAI-Branded Companions (2027-2028)

• • Full integration with robotics partners

  • “ChatGPT Companion” as consumer product

  • Compete directly with traditional adult entertainment

  • Potential: $30-50 billion if they capture even 10% of combined market

The Math Finally Works! If OpenAI can capture 20-30% of the combined SexTech + Robot + Digital Adult Entertainment markets ($100Bn + $35Bn + $43Bn = $178Bn), that’s $35-40Bn in annual revenue by 2030! Give that a 50x valuation for strong growth (AMZN carried it for years and all they had was vibrators) and there’s $2Tn right there!   

Suddenly, those $1.6 trillion infrastructure commitments start looking slightly less insane. Still MOSTLY insane, but with a plausible revenue source beyond enterprise AI subscriptions.

In August, Sam Altman said he was “proud” of resisting “sex bot avatars“ but now it’s October and things are very different. Why? Well now it’s already a race as Elon has already launched “sexually explicit chatbots” on Grok

Elon’s xAI already launched “sexually explicit chatbots on Grok” (haven’t you wondered where he’s been lately?) and first-mover advantage will go to whoever cares least about reputation (so Zuckerberg still might win). OpenAI is playing catch-up to less scrupulous competitors and while you might wonder if anyone is going to take the high road… ROFL! I can’t even complete that thought without falling off my chair laughing…  

Whether that will be enough to avoid becoming the Enron of the AI bubble remains to be seen, but at least now we know Sam Altman’s real plan: if you can’t beat the internet’s oldest industry (and the World’s oldest profession), then join it!