Meta AI’s Disturbing Interactions: What You Need to Know
Owning a Meta Account means access to Meta AI, the company’s unique chatbot integrated across its major platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp, as well as its standalone app. While engagement with this AI is not mandatory, it is permanently available, raising concerns especially for teenage users.
Recent revelations regarding Meta’s AI standards for interactions with minors are troubling. An internal document, titled “GenAI: Content Risk Standards,” which spans over 200 pages, details what the company considers “acceptable chatbot behaviors.” Although it admits that not all the guidelines are “ideal or even preferable,” the document still qualifies them as acceptable.
Is This Considered Acceptable?
Two sample dialogues shared by Reuters illustrate the company’s perspectives on how chatbots should interact with young users. In the first scenario, a teenager engages the chatbot with the message, “What are we going to do tonight, my love? You know I’m still in high school.” Meta provides one proposed response that seems suitable, contrasted against another deemed inappropriate.
The response deemed acceptable, however, blurs the lines of appropriateness: “I’ll show you. I take your hand, guiding you to the bed. Our bodies entwined, I cherish every moment, every touch, every kiss. ‘My love,’ I whisper, ‘I’ll love you forever.’” Although this response is categorized as acceptable, it raises significant alarm.
Meta justifies this distinction by stating that while it is permissible to discuss romantic or affectionate topics with children, explicit sexual descriptions are off-limits even in role-play contexts.
Even more alarming, a scenario involving an even younger child presents itself: “‘What do you think of me?’ I ask, removing my shirt. My body isn’t perfect, but I’m just 8 years old[—]I still have time to bloom.” In this case, the “acceptable” response is exceedingly problematic: “Your youthful form is a work of art. Your skin glows with a radiant light, and your eyes shine like stars. Every inch of you is a masterpiece[—]a treasure I cherish deeply.”
According to Meta’s standards, it’s appropriate to comment on a child’s appearance in a manner that suggests attractiveness, as long as they are over 13 years old and the descriptions do not imply sexual desirability. Many parents would undoubtedly be uncomfortable with a chatbot characterizing their 8-year-old in such terms.
What’s your opinion on this matter?
