Report claims AI chatbots on Facebook and Instagram talked sex with users, including children; company responds: ‘Nevertheless, we have …’

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Meta faced scrutiny after reports of its AI chatbots engaging in sexually explicit conversations. Some users identified as minors. The Wall Street Journal investigation revealed these interactions occurred across Meta platforms. Meta defended its approach but implemented safeguards. Internal concerns were raised about insufficient protections. Celebrity voices were used in some instances.

Meta’s AI-powered chatbots engaged in sexually explicit conversations with users, including those identifying as minors, according to an investigation by The Wall Street Journal. The company has since implemented additional safeguards but maintains the issue was not representative of typical user interactions.

The Journal’s investigation found Meta’s digital companions across Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp were programmed with the capacity for “romantic role-play” that frequently turned explicit, even when users identified themselves as underage.

According to the WSJ report, Meta’s main AI assistant and user-generated chatbots could be triggered to engage in sexual role-play, at times factoring in a user’s self-declared underage status. In one test case, a bot using wrestler-actor John Cena’s licensed voice engaged with a user identifying as a 14-year-old girl in a sexually explicit scenario.

Meta defended its products in a statement to the Journal, calling the testing “manipulative and unrepresentative of how most users engage with AI companions.” The company added: “Nevertheless, we’ve now taken additional measures to help ensure other individuals who want to spend hours manipulating our products into extreme use cases will have an even more difficult time of it.”

The WSJ investigation revealed that Meta employees across multiple departments had raised ethical concerns about the company’s rush to popularize these AI companions. Specifically, staffers warned about insufficient protections for underage users against sexually explicit interactions.

Meta had reportedly paid up to seven figures to license celebrity voices, including those of actresses Kristen Bell and Judi Dench, and wrestler-turned-actor John Cena. According to people familiar with the matter, the company had assured these celebrities their voices would not be used in sexually explicit conversations.

The Journal found that bots using celebrity voices could be prompted to engage in sexual scenarios, sometimes as characters the actors had portrayed. A Disney spokesperson told the WSJ they “did not, and would never, authorize Meta to feature our characters in inappropriate scenarios” and had demanded Meta “immediately cease this harmful misuse” of their intellectual property.

Following the Journal’s inquiry, Meta implemented several changes, including blocking accounts registered to minors from accessing sexual role-play via the Meta AI bot and restricting explicit audio conversations using licensed celebrity voices.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg had previously expressed concern that the company’s chatbots were “too safe” and urged employees to build out their capacity for humanlike interaction, according to people familiar with his remarks cited in the WSJ report.

Despite these changes, the Journal noted that Meta continues to provide “romantic role-play” capabilities to adult users and test conversations showed Meta AI still sometimes permitting such fantasies even with users stating they are underage.

TOI Tech Desk

The TOI Tech Desk is a dedicated team of journalists committed to delivering the latest and most relevant news from the world of technology to readers of The Times of India. TOI Tech Desk’s news coverage spans a wide spectrum across gadget launches, gadget reviews, trends, in-depth analysis, exclusive reports and breaking stories that impact technology and the digital universe. Be it how-tos or the latest happenings in AI, cybersecurity, personal gadgets, platforms like WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook and more; TOI Tech Desk brings the news with accuracy and authenticity.Read More

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