Over the last few months, users of Facebook and Instagram may have noticed a new avenue to interact with the platform: Meta AI. The AI tool, similar to language learning models like ChatGPT, X’s Grok, and Microsoft’s Co-Pilot, is able to carry forward advanced conversations with users and synthesize complex answers based on prompts.

Meta has leveraged its AI model to create a wide array of chatbots. Some are officially sanctioned by Meta and feature the voices of celebrities like Kristin Bell and John Cena. Others are created and customized by users.

Two weeks ago, the Wall Street Journal reported that they had had hundreds of test conversations with these chatbots over several months. They found that Meta had not prevented some of these chatbots from engaging in sexually explicit conversations with users, even with minor users. In addition, some of these chatbots were based on characters that are themselves minors.

This does not appear to be an accident on the part of Meta. Guardrails appear to have been removed or never put in place, with the aim of making the chatbots as engaging and addictive as possible.

This is just one example of the challenges that Big Tech and AI have placed before the American people. Here to talk about those challenges is Wes Hodges, Acting Director of the Center for Technology and the Human Person at The Heritage Foundation.

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Follow Wes Hodges on X: https://x.com/wesghodges

WSJ Article on Meta AI Chatbots:

https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/meta-ai-chatbots-sex-a25311bf

Have thoughts? Let us know at heritageexplains@heritage.org

The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman