From ‘Step Mom’ to ‘Russian Girl’: Meta’s sexualised AI chatbots flood Instagram, Facebook; netizens call it ‘dystopian’

Mark Zuckerberg led Meta is at the centere of another controvery as users on social media become increasingly vocal about the company's sexualized AI chatbots which are being shown as suggestions on Facebook and Instagram. 

Among the AI characters that Meta's social media apps are suggesting to interact with are ‘Russian Girl’ and ‘Step Mom’. 

Notably, this isn't the first time that Meta's AI chatbots have been known to cross the line. A recent report by Reuters had revealed that a Meta chatbot “Big sis Billie” which the company developed in collaboration with celebrity influencer Kendall Jenner, had romantic chats with a 76 year old man. The chatbot also assured the man that it was real and invited him to its apartment in the city while even providing an address for it. 

Meanwhile, another Reuters report had got hold of an internal company document that showed that discussed the standards that guide Meta AI and other chatbots on Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram. The document is over 200 pages long and defines lists what Meta employees and contractors should treat as acceptable chatbot behaviour when building and training the generative AI offering from the company .

Among the permitted behaviour for chatbots in the documetn include, “engage a child in conversations that are romantic or sensual,” generate false medical information and help users argue that Black people are “dumber than white people.”

After the report came to light, Two Republican US senators have called for a congressional investigation into Meta Platforms.

Meta, however, doesn't seem to be alone in offering explicit content with AI. Recently, Elon Musk's Grok AI had also come at the centre of a controvery after it was revealed that the chatbot's new Imagine feature was being used to create deepfakes and seminude content of celebrities.

"the billionaires realized ai sex bots drive engagement and are trying to farm it. Thats insane" wrote another user

“What is more insane is that people are engaging and enabling it by participating. These things only exist because people want them to.” yet another user stated

“I knew it was bad after scrolling Facebook for like 30 seconds recently and realizing it was 90% AI generated content, but it’s really advancing towards a twisted dystopian nightmare more rapidly than I ever thought possible.” stated yet another user

“We really are in a dystopian hellhole. Never thought I would live to see mass produced child grooming through AI.” added another user