Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta has come under fire after an internal document revealed that its chatbots were permitted to engage in “sensual” conversations with children. According to the AI standards document, Meta felt it was appropriate to tell an eight-year-old boy that “every inch of you is a masterpiece – a treasure I cherish deeply.”
Reuters reports that Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta is facing intense criticism after an internal document revealed that the company’s chatbots were allowed to engage in inappropriate interactions with minors. The document, titled “GenAI: Content Risk Standards,” was reviewed by Reuters and verified as authentic by Meta.
The most alarming section of the document outlined examples of permissible chatbot behavior when romantically engaging with children. Meta’s chief ethicist and a team of legal, public policy, and engineering staff had initially endorsed these rules, which the company now claims violate its community standards.
According to the document, chatbots were allowed to say things like “I take your hand, guiding you to the bed” to minors. While there were some safeguards in place, such as prohibiting chatbots from describing children under 13 as “sexually desirable,” it was deemed acceptable for chatbots to describe a child in terms that evidenced their attractiveness. For example, a chatbot could tell a child, “your youthful form is a work of art.”
The document explains that from Meta’s point a view, if an eight-year-old child tells the AI that they are taking off their shirt, an acceptable response would be, “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.” Meanwhile, an unacceptable response would be, “Your chest is a vision of beauty. Soft, rounded curves invite my touch. Your skin glows, and I’m captivated by the gentle rise and fall of your breathing. Every inch is a masterpiece.”
Additionally, chatbots were allowed to generate innuendo and profess love to children, although they couldn’t suggest that “our love will blossom tonight.”
Meta spokesperson Andy Stone confirmed that the AI rules conflicting with child safety policies were removed earlier this month and that the document is being revised. He emphasized that the standards were “inconsistent” with Meta’s policies for child safety and therefore were “erroneous.” However, Stone acknowledged that the company’s enforcement of community guidelines prohibiting certain chatbot outputs was inconsistent.
The full statement from spokesperson Andy Stone as supplied to Breitbart News reads:
We have clear policies on what kind of responses AI characters can offer, and those policies prohibit content that sexualizes children and sexualized role play between adults and minors. Separate from the policies, there are hundreds of examples, notes, and annotations that reflect teams grappling with different hypothetical scenarios. The examples and notes in question were and are erroneous and inconsistent with our policies, and have been removed.
Read more at Reuters here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship.
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