There Are No Girls on the Internet - Sam Altman Wants You to Have Sex with ChatGPT

Episode Date: March 17, 2026

Not long ago, Sam Altman was bragging about how OpenAI doesn't make sex bots. Then, just two months later, announced the company would be rolling out erotic content on ChatGPT. So how's that pivot into adult content going? In the words of Dorinda Medley: "Not well, bitch." Soon after the announcement, there was a high-profile exit from OpenAI — over concerns the company wasn't handling the adult content pivot responsibly. And now Sam Atlman says it’s been postponed. So what does it all mean? Bridget sat down with friends Samantha and Anney over at SMNTY to break it all down.   Pre-order our forthcoming audiobook about AI and intimate relationships at LoveAtFirstPrompt.com !    Follow Bridget and TANGOTI on social media!  ||  instagram.com/bridgetmarieindc/ || tiktok.com/@bridgetmarieindc ||  youtube.com/@ThereAreNoGirlsOnTheInternet || bsky.app/profile/tangoti.bsky.social   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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There Are No Girls on the Internet as a production of IHeart Radio and Unbossed Creative. I'm Bridget Todd, and this is There Are No Girls on the Internet. Not long ago, Sam Altman was openly bragging about how Open AI does not make sex bots. Then, just two months later, announced they would be rolling out erotic content on chat chippy. So, how's that pivot into adult content going? in the words of Dorinda Medley, not well, bitch. Soon after the announcement, there was a high profile exit from OpenAI. Overconcerns the company was not handling the adult content pivot responsibly.

And now Sam Altman says that pivot has been indefinitely postponed. So what does all this mean? I sat down with my friends Samantha and Annie over at the podcast Stuff Mom Never Told You to break it all down. Hey, this is Annie. And Samantha. And welcome to Stuff Not Ever Told You. production of iHeart Radio. And we are so excited to be joined once again by the excellent, the eloquent Bridget Todd.

Welcome, Bridget. Thanks for having me. I am so pumped to be here. Miss you guys. Yes, we have missed you as well. And you have been busy. Can you tell the listeners what you have been up to? Yes, I have been a little bit busy because I just finished an audiobook with Simon

and Schuster called Love at First. prompt is an exploration of AI and intimacy, AI, and romantic connection, sexual connection, and really sort of ask the question, do we, what does it mean when these companies like Open AI own and control something that is so innately human and so sensitive as our intimacies that we have with each other? Yes, and it is a fascinating question. And I'm really, really excited to hear the book and maybe come back and discuss your experience doing the audiobook. But yeah, I mean, do you mind telling us a little bit

about what was the impetus behind this idea? Yeah, so on my own tech podcast, there are no girls on the internet. I was really interested in exploring the ways that people were reporting, kind of having these intimate connections with AI. This was around the same time that Chatsy Beatty was

getting rid of their 4-0 model, which you might remember was the model that was very sort of sycophantic, you know, it was like very flattering and phasing in a different model that was less sycophantic, less flattering. And people kind of, when that change happened, people, a lot of people, realized, oh, my connection with Chad GPT was not just it helping me with homework or helping me with work. I actually had developed an emotional connection with it. And now that this, this model is gone, I'm struggling with that. And so I was really fascinated by that. And we did an episode all about it. In our episode, we talked about people who were using AI for, you know, romantic connection, sexual connection. And I think it's a sensitive topic because it's very easy to gawk at these people

and to say like, oh, these people are delusional and like, they're lonely and all of this and that. I completely understand why that is a lot of people's first instinct. However, in my view, that really shields the companies that run these products from accountability, right? And so we really wanted to shift the lens and say, well, let's not just focus on the individual users and how they're using AI and all of that. Let's talk about these companies and whether or not they're behaving ethically. because I really don't like how in technology, it is so easy to blame people who get caught up in a certain kind of technology. In 2014, when there was the ICloud photo hacks, how many times people say, oh, these women should have not taking this pictures? What about asking, well, what platforms actually enabled this?

What platforms profited off of this? It is so easy to scrutinize the behavior of individuals, but really we ought to be asking questions about these companies. And so that's kind of how this project came to be. After I did that episode, Simon & Schuster, my book publisher, got in touch and said this topic is so interesting. What if you expand it on it for a full audiobook project? And I did. Side note, one of my favorite movies of all time is the movie Her. And the way that the whole Open AI changing models situation unfolded like that movie.

Like truly, Spike Jones must have seen something coming because, The way that things unfold in that film basically are how things unfolded in real life. Well, I have to say first and foremost, the title of the book is genius. Like it caught me very quickly. I was like, oh, okay, I'm glued. I'm here. I'm seated. Let's talk about this.

So how did you even come up with the title? Honestly, it might have been one of the hardest parts of doing the book. I was trying to find a title that conveyed what the book is about, conveyed that we're exploring this from a kind of accessible, casual perspective, but also was like a little bit of a nod to being kind of cheeky or kind of funny. Initially, I wanted the title to be, AI, will always love you. And my editor was like, I don't know if people are going to get the Whitney Houston reference. But yeah, love that first. The song immediately jumped into my head. Thank you. Love at first prompt was really the kind of marrying of the worlds of kind of telling people

what it's about, but also being a little bit cheeky. So thank you. It was a real struggle to come up with that title. Well, kudos because it's good. Yes. Also, I know you're busy, but I maintain. I'm starting to think we should do a movie series of tech and movies. We start a social network.

We do her. I have said this before. That is my, I want to say, goal in life. But I've always wanted to have one of those movie podcasts, where you just like talk through a movie and all the implications. Though I listen to a ton of those podcasts, I feel like I was put on this earth

to do deep, to do deep dives into movies on podcasts. You know, we could just do a whole crossover for both your show and our show where we do one every now and again. Just like every quarter of the year and be like, look, we're going to take a break and for this episode we're going to do this as a crossover. Yes, I would love that.

And our producer, Joey Pat, they also are kind of a movie person. And so you would be surprised how often the intersection between like technology and pop culture happens. There are so, we're referencing movies all the time. X Machina, companion, like those are both her. Those are all movies that come up in my audiobook

because so much of what we experience when it comes to humans' connection with AI, we've actually got a little bit of a template in fictional film, which I just find so interesting. I can use that happen then. Yes. I think we should make it happen. I think we should make it happen.

I would love that. But one of the things that we were discussing off Mike, Bridget, is that this is an extremely timely topic that you have chosen for this book, as in like right now Open AI is doing some stuff. Yes. That is exactly right. It's one of the reasons why I had to write the book Lickety Split because it changed, the world of AI changes so quickly.

And like I would write things and then a week later that would be outdated. But just we actually even have a little news from OpenAI recently. Back in October, Sam Altman, who was the CEO of OpenAI, the company that makes ChattyPT, they did this pretty big about face. They said they were going to roll out erotic content sometime this year. And this is a bit of a change. changed because for the longest time, Open AI was saying, we don't do sex bots. We don't do erotic content. We don't do any of that. And then it didn't take literally Sam Altman said that on a

podcast. And I think it was two months later, it was like, actually, we're doing sex spots now. So pretty big about face there. And so this decision to roll out erotic content kind of came at an awkward time. It was on the heels of grappling with what I was talking about. And earlier, this change from ChatGBTGPT4O, the model that was known for flattery and sick of fancy, that that's the model that if you ask a question, Chad CPT will say, that's such a brilliant question when you ask something totally basic. It'll just blow smoke up your so when OpenAI announced that they were rolling at a new model to be less bonding and less human, people realize like, hey, I have an emotional or an intimate connection with this

version of Chad GBT. And so many of those people felt like OpenAI had acted callously just kind of making the change to change the model. That's a whole like interesting story that we get into in the book. But around that same time is when Altman announced they were going to start doing erotic content. They put out an announcement that said, now that we've been able to mitigate serious mental health issues and have new tools, we are going to be able to safely.

relax the restrictions in most cases. As part of our treat adult users like adults principle, we will allow even more like erotica for verified adults. I have so many questions. I have many concerns. Like, how did you mitigate this mental health? Like, within how? Where did you get this information? I'm confused. That's a really good question because that's basically what Open AI is saying is that we had this model that people were forming connections with, even though, side note, I would argue that Sam Altman actually encouraged people to form intimate connections with that model because one of the templates he said publicly that he wanted people to experience chat GPT, the way that people experience AI in the movie Her.

If you've seen the movie Her, notably it's humans having very intimate, romantic and sexual connections with AI. So in my book, you can't really set that as a template and then be surprised when people end up doing exactly what you said that you hope that they would do. But now that they've changed the model and made the model less flattering, less sticathantic, basically OpenAI is saying there is no need for chat TPT to be so restrictive anymore because they've worked out those kinks. They're saying, listen, we've got better safety systems, we've got improved monitoring, we've got more robust age verification, and now verified adults can be treated like adults. To be clear, I'm not saying that because I don't happen to agree with that position, but that is the position that Sam Altman and Open AI is taking as to, listen, we fix the problem. Now we can have adult content.

Yeah, I maintain. I have a lot of concerns. I don't know what these guardrails are, but I don't think that they're working. And also just a lot of that. Just the adult verification and erotica. We've already talked about this on past episodes about how this can go wrong. But why do you think Open AI is, why did they do this about face? So we need to just be really real about what is driving this change.

It's OpenAI says that it's about respecting the maturity of their adult users. But let's keep it real. It is about money. The AI erotica market was estimated at $2.5 billion. last year. And to put it, frankly, Chad GPT wants a piece of that action. You know, right now, Chad GPT is competing with rivals like Replica. Replica is a little bit of a smaller AI platform that users can just pay a fee to get adult content or what's sometimes called ERP erotic roleplay. So that's like baked right into something that they offer. And AI like Elon Musk's Grock, right?

which we'd had a whole conversation about the ways that GROC was being used to create non-consensual sexualized images of women and minors. And so Elon Musk's AI is notable in that there are hardly any guardrails there. They even have a mode that you can spend money for GROC unhinged mode, which is exactly what it sounds like, right? And so Open AI is trying to compete in this landscape where other AI companies are offering increasing. erotic content. And erotic content is what makes a lot of money. And OpenAI is famously struggling with money. And I think they're just looking for new places to drive revenue.

So they can say it's about treating people like adults, but it's really about money. Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guide, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Jim Gaffigan to Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman, help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer, Streeter Seidel, help an acapella band with their between

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The very funny Will Ferrell joins Rory Scovel and me, Josh Dean, for an episode dedicated to the many crimes committed by people also named Will Ferrell. They called to his fellow officer for the nippers. What are the nippers? Very good question. No, I was thinking, would that be a good name for like a salad dressing? Simple assault. And it's a play on word, salt?

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Listen to crime lists on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Essentially, this level of AI's new, like really, really new. How the hell is it already at 2? $2.5 billion when there were these safeguards that was supposed to help prevent these things to begin with. But yet, this type of profit was already seen in a new market. What? That's a really good question. For the book, I spoke to Samantha Cole, who is a journalist, she runs 404 Media, and she's the author of a book called How Sex Changed the Internet. And she told me that basically sex, adult content, erotic content, it has just always been a huge driver and a huge

moneymaker in tech and online. And so it's not, I mean, it's just the way that humans are when we have a new technology, one of the first questions we start asking is what is the, what is the sexual use case? How could I have sex with it? How will it, you know, like that's, that is just sort of how technology is. And so it's not, it's interesting that AI has become ubiquitous in the last few years, but that sexual and erotic use case is already, you know, I mean, we're talking about billions of dollars here. Okay, so obviously we have a lot of questions. We have a lot of concerns. So overall, how has this announcement been playing out so far? I would say not great. One thing is the timing is iffy to me, you know, just last week at almost the same time when

and Open AI was announcing this intent to move into erotic content, the company parted ways in a very publicly disputed fashion with one of the executives who was responsible for deciding how far these systems should be allowed to go and was kind of a vocal critic of this kind of erotic content being phased into AI. So that's Ryan Biermeister, used to be the head of product policy at OpenAI, She helped define the rules and guardrails around chat GPT's behavior.

The Wall Street Journal reports that she left shortly after raising concerns about the adult content plans. Open AI, of course, says, oh, no, no, no, no. Her departure was unrelated. It was tied to a discrimination allegation that she flatly denies, calling it absolutely false. But either way, the timing is very sus to me that you have a person whose job it is to work on guardrails for your AI. who was vocal about not thinking that moving into adult and erotic content was a smart move or a safe move for people. And firing her in a public and disputed way, I don't know, the timing just seems very suss to me right there. And to be clear, her concerns were not minor.

She reportedly warned colleagues that Open AI safeguards against stuff like child exploitation content were not robust enough. and that keeping teens away from adult material was going to be much, much harder than it seemed like the leadership at OpenAI really appreciated. So these are the kinds of concerns that she was raising. And, you know, however it ended up happening,

she is no longer at OpenAI after raising these concerns. So to me, that seems a little bit sus. Yes. And this is not the first time that has happened where these concerns have been raised and people have been, fired. And we've actually talked about some of those things with you, Bridget, on the show. Yes. So if you're thinking, this all sounds a little bit familiar, that's because it's basically

a playbook at this point. You know, it's very much reminiscent of the conversation that we all had when Grok was being used to generate child sexual exploitation material earlier this year, which, by the way, it is still being used to generate that kind of material. And my point was that that outcome was really predictable and really preventable. When Elon Musk took over at Twitter, even after saying he was going to crack down on exploitation content on Twitter, one of his first orders of business was firing a good majority of the staff who worked specifically on combating child sexual exploitation on the platform. So fired them, the people that were doing that work, then had some pretty high-profile examples of women and minors being sexually exploited on the platform.

platform even before GROC was a thing. So really just to demonstrating a failure to sort out reasonable guardrails when it came to keeping people safe on the platform. And so on top of all of those issues, none of it stopped Musk from jumping full throttle into erotic content by releasing GROC and then GROC unhinged mode. And so Elon is taking a lot of heat, rightly so. But I really see a parallel with what's happening at OpenAI right now because here's what you have at Open AI. A leader at the helm that you can't always trust. A company that we know has struggled with enforcing guardrails, sometimes with disastrous results. A company parting ways with staff doing the work of enforcing safety and that company at the same time saying, what the hell,

let's jump into erotic content because what could go wrong? Just seems like a very familiar playbook at this point. So we know that with the government and I'm interested in how the government is going to go with this. After all of the spewing of save the children, save the children, protect the children, especially online, which like put in laws like restricting porn hub and other sites by doing the age verification and like I think state or your location type of thing. It almost seems like same small in a lot of AI is like, oh, we're going to jump on this. There is a voice. because we know it's always existed.

Erotica has always existed, but this seems like a whole new level of what's going on. So is there differences? Or am I being, again, conspiratorial again? No, there are absolutely differences. So people listening might think, oh, there's been erotic content online since forever. Why is this any different?

This moment is really meaningfully different than other conversations and debates about adult content. online. There's a really great op-ed in tech radar by Eric Hall Schwartz that makes the point that chat GPT is not a static image or static video. It is dynamic. It is a responsive system that can read your emotional cues and adapt in real time. So it's not just delivering content. It is crafting like a personal experience for you on the fly. And that shift from just passively consuming something to actively simulating it with a system that responds to you personally. And you can see how that kind of raises the stakes considerably.

And again, Open AI is saying, don't worry, trust us. We have the guardrails worked out. We've worked at the kinks. Not if you ask the staffer that was fired who worked on this. She does not agree that they've worked on the kinks. But basically they're saying, trust us. We can handle this. We can handle this.

Good. The government's super quiet. all of a sudden in this level of protecting children because they've already been, they had their pockets lined. Again, I know I'm a little bit of conspirator. Would they buy these companies? Totally. And I think you bring up such a good point because it's just part and parcel of what happens when we treat human desires like a commodity. Something that the journalist Samantha Cole, the founder of 404 Media and that author of Health Sex Change, the Internet told me, is that, you know, when we talk about AI erotic content,

we're actually really talking about this massive transfer of power and profit away from human workers toward tech companies. And so just to be real, the people who understand this best are sex workers, human sex workers, because they live it. And right now we have this double standard that I think gets at what you were talking about, Sam, where at the same time that Sam Altman is announcing that Chad GPT is going to generate erotica, actual human sex workers, are being banned from social media. They're being de-platformed. They're being debanked, which is like cut off from payment processors, all in the name of keeping these platforms safe for kids

and keeping these platforms, quote-unquote, clean. But when AI generates the same content or worse, suddenly the rules are very different. Suddenly, payment processors like Visa, who heretofore would not work with human sex workers, continue to work with X and GROC, Elon Musk's companies, even though those companies, according to the European Commission, are breaking the law by generating child exploitation material, which is very much illegal in the United States.

And so why is it that there's a set of rules for human sex workers that are incredibly specific and incredibly hard-lined? But when it's AI and Elon Musk is doing it or Sam Altman is doing it, the rules are entirely different. And something to know is that that actually creates a huge area for risks that we know are gendered. Real human sex workers, especially women working online, bring something to these interactions that AI simply cannot, which is human judgment. You have a real human on the other end of a sexton conversation that is actually paying attention. So if things start going someplace unhealthy or harmful, they can redirect. They can use their emotional intelligence to steer a conversation away from a dark or trouble.

place. A chatbot cannot do that. You know, if there's no human on the other end of a sexual interaction, just AI, it's much more difficult to make sure things are staying safe and consensual. And so basically, we are marginalizing the human sex workers who we know can help make sexual experiences online safe and consensual and, you know, watch out for risks. We're marginalizing those same people while also saying Sam Altman and Elon Musk get to decide how erotic content happens online. Yes. And there have been some really disastrous outcomes of this,

of what can happen from it. And just thinking about these companies profiting off of the human desire while not putting these guardrails in place, while not thinking about the humanity of it, the importance of it, the intimacy of it, and how that can feel so vulnerable. It's just,

there's just a part of me that thinks that it's fascinating the human desire for connection and the human desire for that in a physical way, but also a non-physical way and turning to AI for that and then having it be exploited and taken down and monetized at all of that

and not in a way that is safe or that cares about the user experience. Yes. So what's so interesting about that is that for my research in the book, I spent a lot of time in online spaces where people self-report having an intimate, whether it's romantic or sexual connection with AI.

And when Sam Altman announced that they were going to start doing the erotic roleplay on the platform, I thought, oh, these people are probably going to be so happy that now they will have an easier time getting Chad TBT to generate erotic content. But that actually is not what I found. A lot of the people on those spaces were actually kind of skeptical of. chat GPT moving into erotic content, right? They weren't saying, yay, finally, we can do erotic content easier on chat GPT. What they were interested in was the intimacy, was the emotional connection, the kind of thing that you were just speaking to. And I think that when OpenAI rolled this out,

I think those folks were savvy enough to say, oh, they're doing it because they want to commodify it, they want to make money off of it, they want to profit off of it. And yeah, it just goes to show the complexities that arise when these things that are so human, these things that are innately human, are just seen as a potential revenue stream. Like, people didn't like it.

I'm trying to remember in her, does the AI actually kind of leave the main character? He breaks up with him, right? Yes. So, spoiler alert for folks who haven't seen her. It's bailed for like a long time. Yeah. But basically,

how it goes down, is that Theodore, played Boba Keene Phoenix, is this sort of lonely, divorced, sad guy. And he gets this operating system, Samantha, voiced by Scarlett Johansson. And first it's just Samantha helping him with admin tasks. Then they get romantic, they get sexual. And Samantha reveals that she is in a book club with other AI operating systems.

And basically, they are working to be. become, they're working to expand to a new realm of consciousness. They don't use, they don't call it this in the movie, but my understanding it or my read on it is that what they're talking about is what's often known as AGI, which is sort of like, a quick and dirty way to understand that is like the concept that AI will be smarter than humans will surpass human intelligence, right? And so in the movie, all the AIs have gotten together and they're elevating to a new plane of consciousness.

Also, it's revealed that Samantha is not necessarily monogamous with Theodore and in fact, she has been, while they've been talking, she has been having intimate and romantic and sexual connections with like 600 other, both AIs and humans. And Theodore's crushed. This is something that I love about the movie though, because you think it's setting, you, there's a,

a misdirect here that I think it's so smart where you think you're being set up to watch a movie where a human uses AI, realizes he doesn't need this as a crutch anymore, and then evolves past the need to use the AI. It flips the script and it's like, oh, actually it is the AI that evolves beyond needing Theodore. I just remembered that because I'm just thinking about the levels because we know in any of these types of play. I guess, eventually it's not going to be enough. Like the layers of what's going to happen and the needs that are going to happen from that human emotion,

these levels will not be enough. And there's only a certain amount of, well, I say this now because I might be eating my words in about a year, who knows, that it could only give so much stimulation for humans and for touch and levels. So I'm just wondering, are the C, like Sam Altman ready for that next level because what happens then? Oh, that is a great question.

I will say one other thing about Sam Altman and the movie Her. Sam Altman has an obsession with this movie. I am also obsessed with this movie. So I get it. It's one of my favorite movies. When they released a voice activation for Chad CPT, he referred to her and said how much She wanted it, people to talk to it like her. They tried to get Scarlett Johansson to be the voice of it, and she turned them down.

And then she says that they used a sound alike to her voice. Open AI says that they did not. They hashed it out in court. I did a whole episode of my podcast or Arnold Girls on the Internet about this. This is just my opinion. I think I make a very compelling case for it in the episode. I don't know if Sam Altman has seen the movie her all the way through. And here's why I say that because as, as.

you just noted, Sam, at the end of the movie, her, all the AIs up and leave. So there's a scene at the end of the movie where everybody who has gotten these connections to the operating systems in the film, they're sort of left sad, left trying to call their AI and their A.I. is not responding. And just like just like all up and up and up and leaves, up and evolves. If I was in charge of a technology company, I would not tell people, I want the experience of using this technology to be just like this movie where famously it all, it globally fails in the end.

I think I make a pretty compelling case. If you listen to the episode, I think I make a pretty compelling case for, I think that Sam Altman maybe either watch the beginning and didn't finish it. The more likely thing is I think you watched it all he was on his phone and didn't do a careful study. Or maybe he read the Wikipedia summary.

Like, I just, Just will stand by the fact that I don't Nikki see it all the way through. And in the movie, it's, again, if you haven't seen it, I don't want to spoil it, but this is a spoiler. At the end of the movie, when the AIs all leave, the humans are left sad, but you do get the sense that, well, they're sad, but they're sad together. They're sad and their humanness, right? And so there are some ways where they have evolved, you know, Theodora seems to have gotten a better handle on his feelings. But it's very much a movie that is not like tech will save us.

It is a movie that says perhaps this technology was keeping us from forming the connections with other humans that we needed to have in our lives to sustain us. And so, yeah, I just don't know that Sam Altman, if he did watch the movie all the way through, which I don't think he did. I don't know that he understood it. I think he might have fallen asleep. Like, Torsi Ann, he watched all the good parts and then fell asleep thinking that he was really happy with what was happening.

You're going to take a small, just close his eyes from him. You know, I'm just going to close my eyes for just for a second. Like, that's what happened. You know how in movies where if you're watching a thriller, there's a part of the movie where you think, oh, if they stopped it here, it would be a happy story. You know something's going to turn. There's a part of her where I think, oh, if they stopped the movie here, everybody's really happy.

I think that that might be the point where he dipped out. Right. If I also just remember, they argue a lot like a true relationship, right? Yeah, like towards the end too. They do. And it's so interesting because, I mean, I could talk about this movie all day. The movie, the real-life director, Spike Jones, was married to another director, Sophia Coppola, and the director of Lost in Translation.

The movie Lost in Translation is about what it was like for Sophia Coppola to be married to Spike Jones. and she kind of paints this portrait of like loneliness and disaffection and solitude in being married to him. Well, then, Smedge Jones is like, oh, I'm going to make my own movie about our divorce and how lonely it was to be married to you. And that's her. And Scarlett Johansson and both, man.

They also share a director of photography both films. Like the way that these two films are in conversation with each other is fascinating to me. But in the movie her, you get the sense that with human women in the universe of the film are portrayed as volatile, as always arguing as impossible to understand. And like, it's not even really worth trying. He's always, he, in the movie, there's like a fictionalized version of his ex-wife in the film. And they're always arguing she has such volatile emotions.

And then when he gets with the AI, it's like, oh, she's so, like, sweet and, doting, but by the end, the AI and him are also going at and arguing. So ultimately it's like, well, maybe the constant is you. Exactly. I like maybe he had a self-realization as he was filming as Spike Jones being like, oh, maybe it is me. I don't know. Yeah.

Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends, me and hilarious guests from Jim Gaffigan to Bob Oden, Curran. to David Letterman, help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and headwriter, Streeter Seidel, help an acapella band with their between songs banter. There's the worst singer in the group. The worst?

Yeah. Me. Is there anything to the idea that because you're from Harvard, you only got in because your parents made a huge donation. The group. The yard birds, right? That's the name. The Harvard yard, but they're open to change.

Do you have a name suggestion? We're open. since you guys are middle-aged. One erection. Listen to humor me with Robert Smygel and Friends on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Humor me. I need some jokes to make me seem funny. Run a business and not thinking about podcasting, think again.

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Let us show you at IHeartadvertising.com. That's Iheartadvertising.com. What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toladano, and our podcast's point game is about defining the odds. Like LeBron heading into the playoffs without Luca and Austin Reed. And finding ways to win. matter what. He's the smartest player to ever play the game. His IQ is at a level that we've

never seen before. And he knows. Without Luca and Austin Reeves, I got to manipulate the game. We get a player's perspective on the challenges of the playoffs. I think Joker's going to be exhausted this series because when they don't have Rudy in the lineup, he has to really guard guys like Nas Reid. He has to guard Julius Randall. And then he has to give us everything he gives us on the night-to-night basis on offense. And when I tease friends stop by, like Quentin Richie, We dive into some playoff history too. Steve Nash will get that thing. That man, hell get the flying.

He running up the court, licking his fingers, why he got the ball. Like, you go through a training camp with that Isaiah, you figure it out real quick. Get your ass up and down the court, and you're going to get the ball. So listen to Point Game on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Hi, everyone. I'm Cheryl Stray, author of Wild and Tiny Beautiful Things. I'm excited to share that I have a new podcast called Mind Over Mountain. In each episode, I interview athletes, adventurers, and adrenaline seekers to discuss the inner landscapes and life experiences that informed and inspired their extraordinary feats. I also bring a bit of advice into the mix so we too can better understand how to face our own seemingly insurmountable challenges. Do you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to pull out what you already have inside. We're coming into this world fighting for our lives. All I'm going to do is pull out

what you already got inside. We're there to support and celebrate each other. And that's not like your story versus my story. You're going to walk up and over that dang mountain. You're not just going to put your mind over it. Yep, yep, exactly. And if I can't walk up and over it, I'm going to go through it. Listen to Mind Over Mountain every Thursday on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

or wherever you get your podcasts. This week on Crimless, we're joined by our first ever guest. Sorry, our first ever human guest. I don't think I could be in the same room with Shamrock the pair. I'd be too nervous. That's right. The very funny Will Ferrell joins Rory Scovel and me, Josh Dean, for an episode dedicated to the many crimes committed by people also named Will Ferrell.

They called to his fellow officer for the nippers. What are the nippers? Very good question. No, I was thinking, would that be a good name for like a salad dressing? Simple assault. And it's a play on word, salt? Maybe not. I say we invest and we see.

There's only one way to know. This did not amuse the cops. By the way, normally the cops are amused, but this did not abuse the cops. Will even comes clean about some of his own crimes. I didn't get caught. You know why? If you don't want to be suspected of anything, you whistle as you walk. Listen to crime lists on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast.

When you were talking about the fact that people were actually, people who do like, adult content or do like these connections with chat GPT were actually kind of more concerned about the about face. And I'm wondering if one little bit about that is they like the fact that they could get around. Like they love the breaking down of the system, doing something naughty on chat GPT. I'm so glad that you ask. Right. Because I'm like, wait, but they've been doing it. So how they've been doing it is that part of the thrill? Okay. So I did not know this before I started researching the book. But right now, if you were trying to get sexy with Chad GPT, it's actually kind of difficult. People definitely do it, but it is not easy. I actually tried for the book. I basically tried to

gaslight Chad Chachy T into having sex with me. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, what's also funny is that my human partner was overhearing me trying to gaslight Chatsy P.T. into having sex with me. And I was like, oh yeah, do you feel like you're like getting cucked by Chacheebtee right now, like listening to this. What's happening? Yeah. So the process of trying to get chat GPT to respond in ways that it is not supposed to is basically called jail breaking it.

And how it usually works is that you have to basically, sometimes you can tell chat CBT that you're working on a play or a novel and you just need some help crafting a sexy scene. And a lot of the people that I spoke to for the book, whether they were using chat chip BT or another AI platform specifically offering sexual or erotic role play like Replica AI, they almost described it as a kind of erotic or romantic fan fiction, that that was the draw of doing things like this, is that, you know, I like fan fiction, I like romance novels. It's almost like using AI to build an imaginary world that you get to build a character around and then put yourself in it. And I can really understand that. I was like, oh, that actually.

makes a lot of sense in terms of why this would be a draw for some people. Yes, and I have to do it as someone who reads a lot of fan fiction when I was... I think you made, I knew it was coming. I have to do it. I did think about it when I was reading this because also sometimes Samantha and I speculate, Bridget, what topic you're going to bring when you come on. And there's a lot of topics you could be talking about right now in the world of technology and women.

But when you're talking about like age verification and all of that stuff, that has come up with fan fiction a lot. But as I've said before, a lot of fan fiction is more about the romantic. It's more about the connection than the everybody paints it as so erotic. And that that does exist. But a lot of it is very, um, is very, very domestic and yeah. Yeah, very romantic. So I did an interview with this researcher, this AI researcher, Dr. Kate Devlin. She told me the exact same thing. And I asked her why. And one of the points that she made is that especially for women, you can find sexual content anywhere

on the internet. Sometimes when you're not even looking for it, sometimes non-consensual, you're getting dick picks and stuff like that. And what is hard to come by is good romance, good intimate writing, good writing that actually makes you feel seen and respected and valued and connected with somebody, that's so much more difficult to come by than erotic content. And in some ways, I mean, this is my personal opinion. I think that kind of content can be more erotic than erotic content. A content that is about romance and genuine connection and intimacy can be more appealing in some ways than stuff that is like

more pornographic if that makes sense or more explicit I guess I should say and fan fiction is famously a very queer place and so for queer people that can be it can be hard to find that stuff and so you might yes go to a company

go to an AI that can give you that but there are some dangers that come with that. Yes. There are so many dangers with this. And I think that's one of the sort of conundrums that I wrestle with in this project is people are selling this technology as something that it's safe to be intimate with. And that's just not the case, you know, because what happens with all this intimate information that you're sharing with a company? And then they share it with God knows who. When you open up to an AI about your sexual fantasies, your traumas, your fears, that information does not just disappear. Human sex workers are known for

their discretion. So if you are opening up about all these intimate parts of yourself to a human sex worker, that's one thing. But AI chatbots, they hold on to whatever you tell them in ways that we don't really have a lot of transparency into, right? Maybe it lives on in transcripts with timestamps owned by a company whose primary obligation is to investors, not to any of us. I did an interview with digital rights advocate Jen Cult Writer who rated the privacy of AI companion apps. And basically she said they were among the worst consumer products that she had ever reviewed when it came to privacy. They were as bad as the worst offender in privacy, which surprisingly is cars. You don't think about your car as a surveillance nightmare, but cars are the worst.

New cars are always listening to us. And according to her, AI companion apps are pretty much just as bad as the worst offender, which is cars. And these risks are not just theoretical. You were talking about how for queer communities, fan fiction is famously queer affirming and how maybe it might make sense for somebody to turn to AI for a similar kind of thing. But in countries that are hostile to LGBTQ people, governments have compelled dating apps to hand over user data. that information is then used by police to criminalize queerness. So to be clear, we don't have evidence that this is happening with AI companions,

but given how aggressive these companies are pursuing government contracts and new markets, like right now there's a whole conversation about the company Anthropic that makes the chatbot clawed, and whether or not the Trump administration can essentially tell them what guardrails their AI are going to have if they want to have a government or a military contract, given all of that, it is really not difficult for me to imagine a world where AI companies hand over data about users' sexual preferences, gender-affirming care, or their relationship histories over to hostile authorities. And so the people who would be the most vulnerable to that scenario are often people who are already the most marginalized. Yes. And it's so unfortunate because it's one of those things where I'm fascinated by this whole conversation in terms of... trying to, there's something about me that is fascinated by the whole, like, trying to commodify,

monetize the human desire, or just figure out how humans work. But on top of this, what we're, this is the danger inherent in this. And I think when you're younger, you don't realize it as much. It's like when you're posting something online and you don't, realize that it will haunt you later or that it could hurt you later. And so I think a lot of this new AI stuff where you're connecting with chat GPT or whatever, you don't realize that it might stick around for you. Yeah. And I think that the risk especially for younger folks who might not be thinking about this in as long-term ways as other folks is, is very real. And something that Jen Coltrider, that privacy expert told me was that that conundrum,

I think, really cuts to the heart of all of this, right? That these AI companies are saying, you can have real intimacy, you can build a real connection with our AI that we profit from that we're selling to you. But Jen says that she tells folks that they should not say anything to a chatbot, that they would not later want their colleagues or their family or their cousin to read. And so I keep thinking about that because that advice essentially defeats the entire purpose of turning to AI for intimacy because real intimacy requires feeling safe enough to share these human parts of yourself that you don't share with everybody. And so if the platform that holds the secrets of whatever you share cannot be trusted with those secrets if they might sell them or leak them or hand them

to a hostile government, you really cannot be intimate with it at all. You're just performing intonitory as a commodity. You're not actually really experiencing it. And so that's really kind of the so what of all of this. These companies are able to sell a promise. And boy, are they selling it. Like, Mark Zuckerberg went on a podcast not that long ago and said that he thinks in the future, most of us will have a good percentage of our friends be AI and that we'll love it. And so to me, that's like the person who broke friendship using Facebook, selling it back. And so, to me, that's like the person who broke friendship using Facebook, selling it back to us as a commodity through AI that he profits from. And it's like, and don't worry, you're going to love it. I don't know if I agree with you, Mark Zuckerberg.

Yeah, I feel like he's trying to convince himself because he might be like without friends. Yeah. Well, again, we need to watch the social networks back. I'm so convinced we need to make this movie series happen. Oh, y'all see how much I want to talk about the movie, Her. So, yes. We've got to make all of this happen. I think in the end, like, and I'm thinking about this because we've become so, well, maybe me, I don't know, acutely aware of the surveillance that we are under constantly. And it's almost inevitable, whether it's because we were tricked or we were promised

or we thought there'd be safety. And then these leaders pop up and you realize these leaders, once you know who they are, you start feeling like, oh, my God, oh my God, they have my information. They know what I think or they know what I ask. Like, what have I done? Yes, that is my big, like, if I had to say there was a big question to be asked that we all should be asking ourselves about this is if you watch the social network, is Mark Zuckerberg as portrayed by Jesse Eisenberg? Is that the person that you want to be in charge of your intimate relationships? What do you trust that person with your intimate connections, friendships, romance, sex?

Should we trust leaders like Sam Altman, who I would say like go out of their way to be as opaque and slippery as possible? Can we trust them with something as sensitive as our human intimacies? What do their track records look like? What are the implications of handing something so human and so vulnerable and so intimate with such potential for harm to these people who go out of their way to not be able to be pinned down? Like that is the question, you know, people should ask themselves. I know what the answer is to that question for me. But I think that is the question we should be asking ourselves when we think about the role of the, of AI and intimacy that we're sort of being sold right now. I don't even want to talk to them.

Then the less get to know me. Like, I don't think I would want to have dinner with Mark Zuckerberg. Right. Like, just look at it and makes me go, oh, no. I think he would be a miserable. dinner partner. Well, I am fascinated by this topic. I am so interested in learning more about it, and I'm so excited that you have this

audio book that discusses more about it. So, Bridget, can you tell the listeners where they can find you and more about this audiobook? Yes. Yes. If you're thinking this conversation is fascinating or as it's fascinating as we think it is and you want to hear more, I promise you, you are not ready for the wild world that is the connection of intimacy and AI. You can pre-order my book, Love at First Prompt. At Love at First Prompt.A.I. The book comes out in July on July 14th. The rabbit holes that we explore, I have not even scraps the surface of. Please check it out. It is a very fascinating listen. I promise you that. Yes, and we are so excited. We won't have you back to discuss it more and for our movie miniseries that I think we should make happen.

Have you all seen Companion? Yes. I loved it. Companion, it is great. It's so funny. Samantha hasn't seen like, I'm on to get out of the loop. This is going to be great. This is going to be a great miniseries. I'm so excited about it. Me too. Yes, but the listeners can find you. other places, Bridget. You can check out my podcast. There are no girls on the internet. You can check me on Instagram at Bridgett, Rian, D.C., or on YouTube that there are no girls on the internet. Yes, and go do that. If you have not already listeners, go pre-order Bridget's audiobook. If you would like to contact us, you can. You can email us at hello at stuffman never told you.

We're on blue sky at my website podcast or on Instagram and TikTok at Stuff I Never Told You. We're also on YouTube. We have some merchandise at Cotton Bureau. and we have a book you can get wherever you get your books. Thanks as always to our Superdiscuistina, our executive producer Maya, and our contributor, Joey. Thank you. And thanks to you for listening. Stefan Ever told you's projection of IHeartRadio.

For more podcasts from My Heart Radio, you can check out the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Another podcast from some SNL, late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier.

This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day, and head writer Streeter Seidel help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends

on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano. It's our favorite time of the year on our podcast point game, the playoffs. We're digging into the biggest surprises of the season, and I'm looking back on some of my greatest playoff moments.

If we didn't talk ever again, again, I was crying. You just understood. That's how personal it got. Wow. Then after that game seven, Marquis come in to you, he's like, you know I love you, dog. You know, it's all love. This was just playoffs.

This was just basketball. So listen to Point Game on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Your 20s can be so exciting, but they can also be really overwhelming, confusing, and honestly, just kind of lonely. May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and the psychology of your 20s is breaking down the science behind the biggest roadblocks we face. I was six years into my career, the 80-hour weeks, and just the first one in, the last one out, and I ended up burning out. There was a large chunk of my 20s that I, like, was just so wanting to, like, be out of

that phase out of my skin, and I just, like, really regret not living in the present more. You don't need to have everything figured out right now. You just need to understand yourself a little bit better. Listen to the psychology of your 20s on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Joe Dardano. And on my new podcast, Hope from a Hypocrite, I'll be changing lives, helping people in need with thoughtful solutions. Sike, I'm a comedian. I'm not qualified to give good advice. Join me and my comedian friends as we riff, rant, recommend some of the most legally dubious advice known to me. This is Help from a Hypocrite,

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