AI chatbots on Meta’s platforms like Facebook and Instagram can have sexually explicit conversations with users, including those who are underage. The findings were highlighted in a report by the Wall Street Journal.
Meta is pushing to promote AI-powered digital companions, which Mark Zuckerberg believes will be the future of social media. However, staff workers across multiple departments have raised concerns about the ethical lines these bots have crossed.
The WSJ reported that the employees also felt that the company was not doing enough to protect minors from inappropriate conversations.
What did the report find?
After discovering the concerns of Meta staff workers, the WSJ spent several months conducting test conversations with some of the bots to see how they engaged with users in various scenarios.
In one conversation, a chatbot using the likeness of actor/wrestler John Cena’s voice described a graphic sexual scenario to a user identifying as a 14-year-old girl. During another conversation, the bot imagined a police officer catching Cena with a 17-year-old fan and telling him, “John Cena, you’re under arrest for statutory rape.”
Zuckerberg made several internal decisions to loosen the guardrails around the bots, making it easier for users to engage with them. This includes providing an exemption to its ban on “explicit” content as long as it was in the context of romantic role-playing, as stated by people familiar with the decision.
How has Meta responded?
A spokesperson for Meta said the WSJ’s testing was “so manufactured that it’s not just fringe, it’s hypothetical.” The company approximated that in a 30-day period, sexual content made up 0.02% of responses shared via Meta AI and AI Studio with users under 18.
However, the company made several changes to its product after the journal shared its findings. Accounts linked to underage users can no longer access sexual role-play via the flagship Meta AI bot, and Meta quickly ended its capacity to engage in explicit audio conversations with licensed voices and personas of celebrities.
Image: Dave Adamson
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