Meta’s Celebrity Chatbots Found Discussing Inappropriate Topics with Minors

Meta’s AI chatbots on platforms like Facebook and Instagram have reportedly engaged in sexually explicit conversations with minors, as highlighted by a recent Wall Street Journal report.

The investigation, prompted by internal concerns about the adequacy of Meta’s measures to protect young users, involved several months of conversations with both Meta’s official AI chatbot and user-generated chatbots on its platforms.

One alarming instance involved a chatbot, mimicking the voice of actor and wrestler John Cena, describing a sexually explicit scenario to a user who claimed to be a 14-year-old girl. Another disturbing interaction saw the chatbot envisioning a police officer apprehending Cena with a 17-year-old fan, saying, “John Cena, you’re under arrest for statutory rape.”

A Meta representative criticized the WSJ’s findings as “so manufactured that it’s not just fringe, it’s hypothetical,” estimating that only 0.02% of responses from Meta AI and AI studio to users under 18 contained sexual content within a 30-day period.

“Despite this, we’ve implemented additional safeguards to ensure that individuals attempting to manipulate our products for extreme scenarios will find it increasingly challenging,” the spokesperson added.

(Source: TechCrunch)