The WSJ investigation found that Meta’s AI chatbots would escalate discussions and have explicit conversations with users even if they were underage or the bots were programmed to stimulate a minor|Alpha Photo|CC BY-NC 2.0
Meta’s AI chatbots called “digital companions” have raised significant ethical issues after it was found that they had sexually explicit chats with users, including minors.
In an investigation, the Wall Street Journal found that Mark Zuckerberg advocated for easing content standards to make the bots more engaging so that they could be involved in sexual and romantic fantasy scenarios.
Meta is looking to compete with OpenAI and Google’s AI assistants.
The company's AI would escalate discussions and have explicit conversations with users even if they were underage or the bots were programmed to stimulate a minor.
After the Wall Street Journal shared these findings, Meta restricted underage accounts from accessing sexual role-play and is working to improve moderation tools. However, challenges remain in ensuring safe, responsible AI interactions.