When Generative AI Is Intimate, Sexy, and Violent: Examining Not-Safe-For-Work (NSFW) Chatbots on FlowGPT

2026-01-20

AI Summary

This study investigates content risks and interaction patterns of user-created NSFW (Not Safe For Work) chatbots powered by generative AI on the FlowGPT platform. Drawing on theoretical frameworks of NSFW functionalities in social media, the research employs qualitative content analysis and large-scale manual annotation to systematically examine 376 chatbots and 307 publicly available dialogues. It proposes the first typology of NSFW chatbots, categorizing them into four types: role-playing, story generation, image generation, and general-purpose. The findings reveal that these bots frequently generate sexual, violent, or offensive content even without explicit user prompts. Moreover, most bots employ fantasy personas and explicit avatars to solicit engagement, highlighting critical blind spots in current AI content safety mechanisms and offering vital empirical insights for the governance of generative AI systems.

Technology Category

• Natural Language Processing: Safety and Robustness
• Humans and AI: Game Design — Procedural Content Generation & Storytelling
• Intelligent Robots: Embodied AI

Application Category

• Social Networks and Social Media: Generative AI / large language models and their impact on social systems
• Web Mining and Content Analysis: Web data quality in the era of algorithmically-generated content
• Economics, Online Markets and Human Computation: Trust and reliance of crowd workers and data experts on GenAI

Abstract

User-created chatbots powered by generative AI offer new ways to share and interact with Not-Safe-For-Work (NSFW) content. However, little is known about the characteristics of these GenAI-based chatbots and their user interactions. Drawing on the functional theory of NSFW on social media, this study analyzes 376 NSFW chatbots and 307 public conversation sessions on FlowGPT. Findings identify four chatbot types: roleplay characters, story generators, image generators, and do-anything-now bots. AI Characters portraying fantasy personas and enabling hangout-style interactions are most common, often using explicit avatar images to invite engagement. Sexual, violent, and insulting content appears in both user prompts and chatbot outputs, with some chatbots generating explicit material even when users do not create erotic prompts. In sum, the NSFW experience on FlowGPT can be understood as a combination of virtual intimacy, sexual delusion, violent thought expression, and unsafe content acquisition. We conclude with implications for chatbot design, creator support, user safety, and content moderation.

Problem

• Generative AI
• NSFW chatbots
• virtual intimacy
• unsafe content
• user interaction

Innovation

• generative AI
• NSFW chatbots
• virtual intimacy
• content moderation
• user-generated AI characters