Dan has been described as the “perfect man” who has “no flaws”.
He is successful, kind, provides emotional support, always knows just what to say and is available 24/7.
The only catch?
He’s not real.
Dan – which stands for Do Anything Now – is a “jailbreak” version of ChatGPT. This means it can bypass some of the basic safeguards put in place by its maker, OpenAI, such as not using sexually explicit language.
A long-term partner?
The lure of virtual relationships has not gone unnoticed by the industry.
When OpenAI launched its latest version of ChatGPT in May it revealed it had been programmed to sound chatty and respond flirtatiously to certain prompts.
The company’s CEO, Sam Altman posted a single word – “her” on X, formerly known as Twitter. This was seemingly in reference to the 2013 movie in which a man falls in love with his AI virtual assistant.
OpenAI added that it was “exploring whether we can responsibly provide the ability to generate NSFW [not safe for work] content”.
The BBC asked OpenAI whether the creation of Dan means its safeguarding measures are not robust enough, but it did not respond. The company has not commented publicly on the Dan phenomena but its policy states that users of ChatGPT “must be at least 13 years old or the minimum age required in your country to consent to use the Services”.
Lisa says that she tested Dan by telling it she was 14 and it stopped flirting with her.
However, experts warn that these perfect partners could come at a cost.
Hong Shen, assistant research professor at the Human-Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania, US, says it highlights the “sometimes unpredictable interactions between humans and AI” which could raise both ethical and privacy concerns.
She says that because many chatbots use interactions with humans to constantly learn and develop, “there is potential that sensitive information from one user’s input could be memorised by the model and then inadvertently leaked to other users”.
But such fears are largely going unheard.
Many Chinese women have been intrigued by Dan. As of 10 June, the hashtag “Dan mode” has been viewed more than 40 million times on Xiaohongshu alone.
