--- title: "OpenAI Fires Top Safety Exec Who Opposed ChatGPT’s “Adult Mode”" description: "OpenAI fired the safety executive, Ryan Beiermeister, after she voice her criticism against ChatGPT's adult mode." date: "2026-02-12" modified: "2026-02-12" authors: - name: "Frank Landymore" job_title: "Contributing Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/flandymore" url: "https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/openai-fires-safety-exec-opposed-adult-mode" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "OpenAI" --- # OpenAI Fires Top Safety Exec Who Opposed ChatGPT’s “Adult Mode” ![Multiple overlapping and blurred OpenAI logos in white on a dark background, creating a kaleidoscopic effect. The logos are arranged in a circular pattern with one clear logo in the center.]() *Samuel Boivin / NurPhoto via Getty Images / Futurism* OpenAI fired a top safety executive after she opposed the company's decision to allow adult and sexual content in ChatGPT, [*The Wall Street Journal* reports](). The executive, Ryan Beiermeister, was fired following a leave of absence in early January because she allegedly sexually discriminated against a male employee, OpenAI maintains — something that Beiermeister denies ever happened. "The allegation that I discriminated against anyone is absolutely false," she told the *WSJ* in a statement. OpenAI, on the other hand, said "her departure was not related to any issue she raised while working at the company." Beiermeister was vice president of OpenAI's product policy team, which develops rules and safeguards for how its products can be used. Before she was fired, she told colleagues that she was opposed to [OpenAI's plans]() to launch an **"**adult mode**"** that would allow users to engage in sexually explicit conversations with the chatbot. In addition, Beiermeister also expressed that she believed OpenAI's guardrails to prevent child exploitation content weren't strong enough, including when it came to walling off adult content from teens, per the *WSJ* sources. The drama comes amid widespread attention on how the humanlike and sycophantic responses of AI companions can cause a user to form unhealthy attachments to them. In some cases, the AIs can encourage severely delusional thinking in a phenomenon some experts are calling AI psychosis, which has led to [numerous deaths](), many of them [teenagers](). OpenAI [admitted last October]() that half a million users were showing signs of psychosis in their conversations with ChatGPT every week, citing internal data. And now for a pertinent detail in light of the allegations of Beiermeister discriminating against a man. According to the reporting, Beiermester started a peer-mentorship program for women at OpenAI in early 2025. The program, the *WSJ* described citing people familiar with the matter, "connected women from different parts of the company and helped them gather in small groups to discuss career strategies." You can read between the lines here. Mind you, this is coming during an administration that's pressuring companies and its own agencies by [crying foul about discrimination against white people]() and DEI initiatives. An administration, by the way, that OpenAI — as well as some of its [top executives]() — is very cozy with. Tech journalist Brian Merchant spells it out. "Tech executives have finally amassed their ultimate, long dreamed-of power: to summarily fire anyone who speaks ill of their desire to have sex with robots," he [wrote](). **More on AI:** [*ChatGPT Users Are Crashing Out Because OpenAI Is Retiring the Model That Says “I Love You”*]() ## Author At Futurism, my work has often centered on bringing a sense of clarity and insight to complex topics ranging from the regulation of emerging technologies to the esoteric ideologies of Silicon Valley executives, while striving not to lose the poetic sense of awe inspired by often-obscure fields like astrophysics and quantum computing. I broke the story of CNET using AI to produce articles that turned out to be riddled with factual errors and plagiarism — a dam-breaking inflection point, as I've reported, that's inspired copycats and endless discourse while beguiling stakeholders ranging from tech giants to purveyors of spam around the web. My work at Futurism has been cited by publications including CBS News, the Los Angeles Times, Vice, Gizmodo, Engadget, the Verge, and Vanity Fair. I grew up in locales ranging from India to China, and now live in the exotic suburbs of Virginia. In my free time, I'm an avid reader of weird sci-fi literature, an aficionado of East Asian cinema, and, regrettably, a relapsed gamer. Allegedly, I’m working on a debut novel, currently untitled. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()