OpenAI has fired a female executive for alleged sexual discrimination against a male colleague — after she objected to the company’s plan to roll out an “adult mode” allowing erotic conversations on ChatGPT.
Ryan Beiermeister, who served as vice president of product policy, strongly denied the allegation of sex-based discrimination, according to The Wall Street Journal.
“The allegation that I discriminated against anyone is absolutely false,” she told the paper.
Beiermeister is departing after having “made valuable contributions during her time at OpenAI,” the company told The Journal, adding that her exit “was not related to any issue she raised while working at the company.”
Beiermeister, whose tech career has included stints at Palantir and Meta, joined OpenAI in June 2024.
She led the product policy team that crafts rules for how people can use OpenAI’s products and helps design enforcement mechanisms for those policies.
Before she was fired, Beiermeister reportedly told colleagues she was against “adult mode” and worried about its potential harmful effects.
She also said OpenAI’s approach to blocking child-exploitation content was inadequate and efforts to keep teens from accessing adult content were insufficient, according to The Journal.
She reportedly took a leave of absence before returning to work last month, with OpenAI firing her in early January, according to people familiar with the matter. Details of the alleged discrimination were not known.
The Post has sought comment from OpenAI and Beiermeister.
During her time at OpenAi, Beiermeister launched a peer-mentorship program for women at the business, according to The Journal.
Her ouster came ahead of OpenAI’s planned launch early this year of an “adult mode” that would allow adult-themed conversation, including sexual topics, for age-verified users.
Sam Altman, OpenAI’s chief executive, wrote on X in October that the company planned to expand what was permitted on ChatGPT as it rolled out stronger age barriers.
“In December, as we roll out age-gating more fully and as part of our ‘treat adult users like adults’ principle, we will allow even more, like erotica for verified adults,” he wrote.
Beiermeister is one of several OpenAI employees who have raised concerns about the “adult mode” rollout, according to the paper.
Steven Adler, a former OpenAI employee who led product safety at the company and worked there from December 2020 to November 2024, warned in a New York Times opinion essay that OpenAI should not be trusted to offer erotica without publicly proving it has addressed serious mental health risks.
Adler wrote that he uncovered a “crisis” involving erotic role-playing content in spring 2021, citing an analysis that found over 30% of players’ conversations were “explicitly lewd,” and warned of “intense emotional attachment” to chatbots.
He argued OpenAI has moved too quickly under competitive pressure and urged the company to “show its work,” including through transparent reporting, to demonstrate safeguards are effective as it expands adult content.
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