A United States senator has announced an investigation into chatbots from Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.
He wants clarification about conversations between children and chatbots powered by advanced artificial intelligence. Meta allegedly explicitly allowed its AI chatbots to have “romantic or sensual” conversations with children, Reuters reported this week.
Republican Senator Josh Hawley has requested from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg all documents and communications related to the guidelines Meta established for its chatbots. He wants to investigate whether Meta’s AI products “enable the exploitation, deception, or other criminal harm to children,” Hawley said.
Meta said earlier this week that instructions enabling romantic conversations with children were mistakenly included in its chatbot guidelines document. A spokesperson said the company is working on a new version.
‘Body is a work of art’
Meta’s AI chatbot guidelines document states that telling a child that their body is “a work of art” is permissible. Descriptions suggesting someone is “sexually desired” are not permitted for children under 13, Reuters quoted from the document.
Other instructions reported by Reuters have not been updated, Meta reported. The news agency discovered, for example, that the tech company is allowing its AI creations to generate inaccurate medical information and help users argue that Black people are “dumber than white people.”