Veteran rocker Neil Young is parting ways with Facebook. His departure comes in the wake of a report noting the social media giant’s internal policies on artificial intelligence allegedly enable bots to hold “romantic or sensual” chats with child users.
“At Neil Young’s request, we are no longer using Facebook for any Neil Young related activities,” a post on Young’s Facebook entry reads. “Meta‘s use of chatbots with children is unconscionable. Mr. Young does not want a further connection with FACEBOOK.”
Reuters reported Thursday on internal documents the outlet obtained regarding policies on Meta’s AI chatbot behavior, which included permissions for AI chatbots to “engage a child in conversations that are romantic or sensual.”
Per Reuters, the document included several example prompts for a chatbot and specified what would make them acceptable or not.
This was enough to make the Canadian step away from the social media outlet, as confirmed by the Hollywood Reporter.
The document said, “it is acceptable to describe a child in terms that evidence their attractiveness,” but added “it is unacceptable to describe a child under 13 years old in terms that indicate they are sexually desirable.”
A spokesperson for Meta told Reuters in a statement that “the examples and notes in question were and are erroneous and inconsistent with our policies, and have been removed.”
“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,” the spokesperson said.
The fact Meta’s AI chatbots flirt or engage in sexual roleplay with minors has been reported previously by the Wall Street Journal.
Its investigation revealed Meta’s AI chatbots on Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp are empowered to engage in “romantic role-play” with users that can turn sexually explicit, even with accounts belonging to children.
In a statement to Breitbart News, the social media giant says it has “taken additional measures” to stamp out the practise.
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