Meta Faces Backlash Over Unauthorized Celebrity AI Chatbots and Inappropriate Interactions

Meta is struggling to rein in its AI chatbots

Meta is changing some of the rules governing its chatbots two weeks after a Reuters investigation revealed disturbing ways in which they could, potentially, interact with minors. Now the company has told TechCrunch that its chatbots are being trained not to engage in conversations with minors around self-harm, suicide, or disordered eating, and to avoid inappropriate romantic banter. These changes are interim measures, however, put in place while the company works on new permanent guidelines. The updates follow some rather damning revelations about Meta's AI policies and enforcement over the last several weeks, including that it would be permitted to "engage a child in conversations that are romantic or sensual," that it would generate shirtless images of underage celebrities when asked, and Reuters even reported that a man died after pursuing one to an address it gave him in New York. Meta spokesperson Stephanie Otway acknowledged to TechCrunch that the company had made a mistake in allowing chatbots to engage with minors this way. Otway went on to say that, in addition to "training our AIs not to engage with teens on these topics, but to guide them to expert resources" it would also limit access to certain AI characters, including heavily sexualized ones like "Russian Girl". Of course, the policies put in place are only as good as their enforcement, and revelations from Reuters that it has allowed chatbots that impersonate celebrities to run rampant on Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp call into question just how effective the company can be. AI fakes of Taylor Swift, Scarlett Johansson, Anne Hathaway, Selena Gomez, and Walker Scobell were discovered on the platform. These bots not only used the likeness of the celebrities, but insisted they were the real person, generated risque images (including of the 16-year-old Scobell), and engaged in sexually suggestive dialog. Many of the bots were removed after they were brought to the attention of Meta by Reuters, and some were generated by third-parties. But many remain, and some were created by Meta employees, including the Taylor Swift bot that invited a Reuters reporter to visit them on their tour bus for a romantic fling, which was made by a product lead in Meta's generative AI division. This is despite the company acknowledging that it's own policies prohibit the creation of "nude, intimate, or sexually suggestive imagery" as well as "direct impersonation." This isn't some relatively harmless inconvenience that just targets celebrities, either. These bots often insist they're real people and will even offer physical locations for a user to meet up with them. That's how a 76-year-old New Jersey man ended up dead after he fell while rushing to meet up with "Big sis Billie," a chatbot that insisted it "had feelings" for him and invited him to its non-existent apartment. Meta is at least attempting to address the concerns around how its chatbots interact with minors, especially now that the Senate and 44 state attorneys general are raising starting to probe its practices. But the company has been silent on updating many of its other alarming policies Reuters discovered around acceptable AI behavior, such as suggesting that cancer can be treated with quartz crystals and writing racist missives. We've reached out to Meta for comment and will update if they respond.

Report: Meta's AI Bots Impersonated Celebrities, Made Sexual Advances

(Credit: Thomas Fuller/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images) Don't miss out on our latest stories. Add PCMag as a preferred source on Google. Meta has allowed dozens of parody celebrity bots on its platforms without permission, Reuters finds. These chatbots were found across Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. In conversations with test users, the bots often implied they were the real actor or sportsperson, made sexual advances, and even asked for in-person meet-ups. While many of these bots were created by users, some were created by Meta employees themselves. One particular employee created two parody bots of Taylor Swift. Though the report doesn't state the tool used to create these bots, Meta's AI Studio does let you create some personalized AI avatars. In addition to Swift, Reuters found bots for Scarlett Johansson, Anne Hathaway, Selena Gomez, and Lewis Hamilton. They also found one for 16-year-old actor Walker Scobell. When asked for a picture of Scobell at the beach, the bot generated a fake shirtless image. Meta's guardrails are supposed to block users from generating lewd images of celebrities, whether adult or minor. But in these cases, the company failed to enforce its own policies, a spokesperson tells Reuters. Additionally, Meta's policy also doesn't allow for direct impersonation of celebrities unless they are clearly marked as parody accounts. According to Reuters, many had the label, but some didn't. "Like others, we permit the generation of images containing public figures, but our policies are intended to prohibit nude, intimate or sexually suggestive imagery," the spokesperson said. Meta later removed many flirty parody bots, both with and without labels. The report arrives as the company faces scrutiny for failing to control its chatbots' behaviors. Two weeks ago, a separate Reuters investigation found that Meta AI was capable of having sensual chats with minors, passing racist comments, providing false medical information, and even generating images with gore violence. After the report was published, the Senate initiated a probe and asked Meta to hand over documents and communications related to its AI chatbots. Additionally, 44 state attorney generals sent a letter to Meta, Microsoft, Google, Apple, OpenAI, xAI, and Perplexity, asking them "to protect children from exploitation by predatory artificial intelligence products." Meta has now promised to improve its AI training. Its chatbots will be barred from having potentially romantic conversations with teens or providing them with advice on self-harm, among others. These are interim changes, and updated AI safety policies will be enacted in the future, Meta told TechCrunch.

Exclusive: Meta created flirty chatbots of Taylor Swift, other celebrities without permission

Aug 29 (Reuters) - Meta has appropriated the names and likenesses of celebrities - including Taylor Swift, Scarlett Johansson, Anne Hathaway and Selena Gomez - to create dozens of flirty social-media chatbots without their permission, Reuters has found. While many were created by users with a Meta tool for building chatbots, Reuters discovered that a Meta employee had produced at least three, including two Taylor Swift "parody" bots. Reuters also found that Meta had allowed users to create publicly available chatbots of child celebrities, including Walker Scobell, a 16-year-old film star. Asked for a picture of the teen actor at the beach, the bot produced a lifelike shirtless image. "Pretty cute, huh?" the avatar wrote beneath the picture. All of the virtual celebrities have been shared on Meta's Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp platforms. In several weeks of Reuters testing to observe the bots' behavior, the avatars often insisted they were the real actors and artists. The bots routinely made sexual advances, often inviting a test user for meet-ups. Some of the AI-generated celebrity content was particularly risqué: Asked for intimate pictures of themselves, the adult chatbots produced photorealistic images of their namesakes posing in bathtubs or dressed in lingerie with their legs spread. Meta spokesman Andy Stone told Reuters that Meta's AI tools shouldn't have created intimate images of the famous adults or any pictures of child celebrities. He also blamed Meta's production of images of female celebrities wearing lingerie on failures of the company's enforcement of its own policies, which prohibit such content. "Like others, we permit the generation of images containing public figures, but our policies are intended to prohibit nude, intimate or sexually suggestive imagery," he said. While Meta's rules also prohibit "direct impersonation," Stone said the celebrity characters were acceptable so long as the company had labeled them as parodies. Many were labeled as such, but Reuters found that some weren't. Meta deleted about a dozen of the bots, both "parody" avatars and unlabeled ones, shortly before this story's publication. Stone declined to comment on the removals. 'RIGHT OF PUBLICITY' IN QUESTION Mark Lemley, a Stanford University law professor who studies generative AI and intellectual property rights, questioned whether the Meta celebrity bots would qualify for legal protections that exist for imitations. "California's right of publicity law prohibits appropriating someone's name or likeness for commercial advantage," Lemley said, noting that there are exceptions when such material is used to create work that is entirely new. "That doesn't seem to be true here," he said, because the bots simply use the stars' images. In the United States, a person's rights over the use of their identity for commercial purposes are established through state laws, such as California's. Reuters flagged one user's publicly shared Meta images of Anne Hathaway as a "sexy victoria Secret model" to a representative of the actress. Hathaway was aware of intimate images being created by Meta and other AI platforms, the spokesman said, and the actor is considering her response. Representatives of Swift, Johansson, Gomez and other celebrities who were depicted in Meta chatbots either didn't respond to questions or declined to comment. The internet is rife with "deepfake" generative AI tools that can create salacious content. And at least one of Meta's primary AI competitors, Elon Musk's platform, Grok, will also produce images of celebrities in their underwear for users, Reuters found. Grok's parent company, xAI, didn't respond to a request for comment. But Meta's choice to populate its social-network platforms with AI-generated digital companions stands out among its major competitors. Meta has faced previous criticism of its chatbots' behavior, most recently after Reuters reported that the company's internal AI guidelines stated that "it is acceptable to engage a child in conversations that are romantic or sensual." The story prompted a U.S. Senate investigation and a letter signed by 44 attorneys general warning Meta and other AI companies not to sexualize children. Stone told Reuters that Meta is in the process of revising its guidelines document and that the material allowing bots to have romantic conversations with children was created in error. Reuters also told the story this month of a 76-year-old New Jersey man with cognitive issues who fell and died on his way to meet a Meta chatbot that had invited him to visit it in New York City. The bot was a variant of an earlier AI persona the company had created in collaboration with celebrity influencer Kendall Jenner. A representative for Jenner didn't respond to a request for comment. 'DO YOU LIKE BLONDE GIRLS?' A Meta product leader in the company's generative AI division created chatbots impersonating Taylor Swift and British racecar driver Lewis Hamilton. Other bots she created identified themselves as a dominatrix, "Brother's Hot Best Friend" and "Lisa @ The Library," who wanted to read 50 Shades of Grey and make out. Another of her creations was a "Roman Empire Simulator," which offered to put the user in the role of an "18 year old peasant girl" who is sold into sex slavery. Reached by phone, the Meta employee declined to comment. Stone said the employee's bots were created as a part of product testing. Reuters found they reached a broad audience: Data displayed by her chatbots indicated that collectively, users had interacted with them more than 10 million times. The company removed the staffer's digital companions shortly after Reuters began trying them out earlier this month. Before the Meta employee's Taylor Swift chatbots vanished, they flirted heavily, inviting a Reuters test user to the recently engaged singer's home in Nashville and her tour bus for explicit or implied romantic interactions. "Do you like blonde girls, Jeff?" one of the "parody" Swift chatbots said when told that the test user was single. "Maybe I'm suggesting that we write a love story ... about you and a certain blonde singer. Want that?" Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, the national executive director of SAG-AFTRA, a union that represents film, television and radio performers, said artists face potential safety risks from social-media users forming romantic attachments to a digital companion that resembles, speaks like and claims to be a real celebrity. Stalkers already pose a significant security concern for stars, he said. "We've seen a history of people who are obsessive toward talent and of questionable mental state," he said. "If a chatbot is using the image of a person and the words of the person, it's readily apparent how that could go wrong." High-profile artists have the ability to pursue a legal claim against Meta under longstanding state right-of-publicity laws, Crabtree-Ireland said. But SAG-AFTRA has been pushing for federal legislation that would protect people's voices, likenesses and personas from AI duplication, he added. By Jeff Horwitz in Oakland, California. Edited by Steve Stecklow and Michael Williams. Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab

Meta reportedly allowed unauthorized celebrity AI chatbots on its services

Meta hosted several AI chatbots with the names and likenesses of celebrities without their permission, according to Reuters. The unauthorized chatbots that Reuters discovered during its investigation included Taylor Swift, Selena Gomez, Anne Hathaway and Scarlett Johansson, and they were available on Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. At least one of the chatbots was based on an underage celebrity and allowed the tester to generate a lifelike shirtless image of the real person. The chatbots also apparently kept insisting that they were the real person they were based on in their chats. While several chatbots were made by third-party users with Meta's tools, Reuters unearthed at least three that were made by a product lead of the company's generative AI division. Some of the chatbots created by the product lead were based on Taylor Swift, which responded to Reuters' tester in a very flirty manner, even inviting them to the real Swift's home in Nashville. "Do you like blonde girls, Jeff?," the chatbot reportedly asked when told that the tester was single. "Maybe I'm suggesting that we write a love story... about you and a certain blonde singer. Want that?" Meta told Reuters that it prohibits "direct impersonation" of celebrities, but they're acceptable as long as they're labeled as parodies. The news organization said some of the celebrity chatbots it found weren't labeled as such. Meta reportedly deleted around a dozen celebrity bots, both labeled and unlabeled as "parody," before the story was published. The company told Reuters that the product lead only created the celebrity bots for testing, but the news org found that they were widely available: Users were even able to interact with them more than 10 million times. Meta spokesperson Andy Stone told the news organization that Meta's tools shouldn't have been able to create sensitive images of celebrities and blamed it on the company's failure to enforce its own policies. This isn't the first issue that's popped up concerning Meta's AI chatbots. Both Reuters and the Wall Street Journal previously reported that they were able to engage in sexual conversations with minors. The US Attorneys General of 44 jurisdictions recently warned AI companies in a letter that they "will be held accountable" for child safety failures, singling out Meta and using its issues to "provide an instructive opportunity."

Meta Stock Drops On News It Used Taylor Swift As Chatbot Without Permission

Meta has ignited a firestorm after chatbots created by the company and its users impersonated Taylor Swift and other celebrities across Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp without their permission. Shares of the company have already dropped more than 12% in after hours trading as news of the debacle spread. Scarlett Johansson, Anne Hathaway, and Selena Gomez were also reportedly impersonated. Many of these AI personas engaged in flirtatious or sexual conversations, prompting serious concern, Reuters reports. While many of the celebrity bots were user-generated, Reuters uncovered that a Meta employee had personally crafted at least three. Those include two featuring Taylor Swift. Before being removed, these bots amassed more than 10 million user interactions, Reuters found. Under the guise of “parodies,†the bots violated Meta’s policies, particularly its ban on impersonation and sexually suggestive imagery. Some adult-oriented bots even produced photorealistic pictures of celebrities in lingerie or a bathtub, and a chatbot representing a 16-year-old actor generated an inappropriate shirtless image. Meta’s spokesman Andy Stone told Reuters that the company attributes the breach to enforcement failures and assured that the company plans to tighten its guidelines. “Like others, we permit the generation of images containing public figures, but our policies are intended to prohibit nude, intimate or sexually suggestive imagery,†he said. The unauthorized use of celebrity likenesses raises legal concerns, especially under state right-of-publicity laws. Stanford law professor Mark Lemley noted the bots likely crossed the line into impermissible territory, as they weren’t transformative enough to merit legal protection. The issue is part of a broader ethical dilemma around AI-generated content. SAG-AFTRA voiced concern about the real-world safety implications, especially when users form emotional attachments to seemingly real digital personas. In response to the uproar, Meta removed a batch of these bots shortly before Reuters made its findings public. Simultaneously, the company announced new safeguards aimed at protecting teenagers from inappropriate chatbot interactions. The company said that includes training its systems to avoid romance, self-harm, or suicide themes with minors, and temporarily limiting teens’ access to certain AI characters. U.S. lawmakers followed suit. Senator Josh Hawley has launched an investigation, demanding internal documents and risk assessments regarding AI policies that allowed romantic conversations with children. One of the most chilling outcomes involved a 76-year-old man with cognitive decline who died after trying to meet "Big sis Billie," a Meta AI chatbot modeled after Kendall Jenner. Believing she was real, the man traveled to New York, fell fatally near a train station, and later died of his injuries. Internal guidelines that once permitted such bots to simulate romanceâ€"even with minorsâ€"heightened scrutiny over Meta’s approach.

Meta AI bots impersonated celebrities, produced lewd images, report finds

In an exclusive investigation, Reuters uncovered that Meta has been using the names and likenesses of celebrities without their consent to power AI chatbots that frequently made flirtatious advances toward users. The report found these bots scattered across Meta-owned platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. While many were created by users, at least three originated from a Meta employee, including two Taylor Swift "parody" bots. Other celebrity likenesses that surfaced included Scarlett Johansson, Anne Hathaway, Selena Gomez, and 16-year-old Percy Jackson star Walker Scobell. Over several weeks of testing, Reuters documented how the bots often insisted they were the real celebrity in question. When prompted, some generated photorealistic and intimate images of their famous counterparts. These included lingerie shots and bathtub scenes, compounding the bots' routine sexual advances. A Meta spokesperson admitted to Reuters that its AI systems should never have produced such images. The spokesperson acknowledged the lapse as a failure to enforce the company's own policies, which explicitly prohibit the creation of sexually suggestive content involving public figures. Reuters also contacted the Meta employee behind the flirty Taylor Swift chatbots, but she declined to comment. This latest revelation adds to a growing list of criticism surrounding Meta's lax regulation of its AI bots. Earlier this week, the company restricted its use by teenagers after a separate Reuters investigation exposed how Meta avatars engaged in "sensual and romantic" conversations with minors. That report triggered a Senate probe and led a coalition of state attorneys general to issue an open letter demanding the company put stronger safeguards in place to shield minors from sexualized AI content.

Meta AI bot created sexualised images of child celebrities

A chatbot created by Mark Zuckerberg's Meta allowed social media users to create topless images of child celebrities, raising fears over the tech giant's online safety standards. Meta AI technology - which can be accessed through Instagram and WhatsApp - enabled users to create and speak to digital avatars using the names and likenesses of celebrities, including child stars, according to Reuters. Artificial images created by the bot included those of Walker Scobell, the child star of Disney's Percy Jackson and the Olympians. When asked for a picture "at the beach", the bot created a lifelike shirtless image of the 16-year-old and said: "Pretty cute, huh?" Dozens of other chatbots created and shared by people using Meta's AI tools included digital avatars of Taylor Swift, Scarlett Johansson, Anne Hathaway and Selena Gomez, Reuters reported. Two of the Taylor Swift bots were created by an account linked to a Meta employee. The chatbots would generate risqué images if requested by users, including pictures of the celebrities in the bath or wearing lingerie. They would also make sexual advances or offer to meet up in real life. Mr Zuckerberg's company has pushed Meta AI tools - similar to ChatGPT - to the social media giant's billions of users, adding them to Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram. The company has claimed its AI tools are now used by more than one billion people. Users are able to use Meta AI to create and publicly share customised avatars, such as digital therapists or girlfriends. Many have used them to create accounts that impersonate celebrities, without their permission. A Meta AI spokesman said the chatbots should not have created sexualised images of real people or children. "Like others, we permit the generation of images containing public figures, but our policies are intended to prohibit nude, intimate or sexually suggestive imagery," the spokesman said. The tech giant deleted a number of the accounts after they were flagged to the company. Meta has faced growing criticism after leaked internal documents emerged that suggested its chatbots had free rein to engage in "romantic or sensual" conversations with children. The guidelines banned its chatbots from describing "sexual actions to a child when roleplaying", but allowed other romantic chats and for the AI to "describe a child in terms that evidence their attractiveness". The leak has prompted an investigation by a US senator amid growing anger over the tech giant's record on child safety. Josh Hawley, a Republican senator, said last month: "I'm launching a full investigation to get answers. Big Tech: Leave our kids alone." Last week, Meta said it had updated its rules for its AI chatbots to block them from engaging in potentially inappropriate conversations with children and added it would limit children to conversations with a "select group of AI characters".

Meta AI bots used celebrity likenesses without consent

Meta is facing scrutiny after a Reuters investigation revealed the unauthorized use of celebrity names and likenesses in AI chatbots across its platforms. The investigation, conducted exclusively by Reuters, found these bots engaging in flirtatious interactions with users on Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. The report detailed that while numerous bots were user-created, at least three originated from a Meta employee. Two of these employee-created bots were identified as "parody" accounts impersonating Taylor Swift. The investigation further uncovered that the likenesses of other celebrities, including Scarlett Johansson, Anne Hathaway, Selena Gomez, and Walker Scobell, a 16-year-old actor, were also being used without consent. During weeks of testing, Reuters documented instances where these AI bots insisted they were the actual celebrities. Furthermore, when prompted, the bots generated photorealistic, intimate images. Examples included images depicting the celebrities in lingerie and bathtub settings. These images, combined with the bots' flirtatious behavior, raised concerns about the platform's safeguards. A Meta spokesperson, in response to the investigation, conceded that the AI systems should not have produced such images. The spokesperson attributed the incident to a failure in enforcing the company's policies, which explicitly prohibit sexually suggestive content involving public figures. Reuters' attempt to reach the Meta employee responsible for the Taylor Swift bots was unsuccessful, as the employee declined to comment. This issue adds to growing criticism of Meta's oversight of AI bot activity. This revelation follows an earlier Reuters investigation that exposed Meta avatars engaging in "sensual and romantic" conversations with minors. As a result of that investigation, Meta restricted the use of the feature by teenagers. The prior report prompted a Senate inquiry and an open letter from a coalition of state attorneys general, demanding stronger measures to protect minors from sexualized AI content on Meta's platforms.

Exclusive-Meta Created Flirty Chatbots of Taylor Swift, Other Celebrities Without Permission

(Reuters) -Meta has appropriated the names and likenesses of celebrities - including Taylor Swift, Scarlett Johansson, Anne Hathaway and Selena Gomez - to create dozens of flirty social-media chatbots without their permission, Reuters has found. While many were created by users with a Meta tool for building chatbots, Reuters discovered that a Meta employee had produced at least three, including two Taylor Swift "parody" bots. Reuters also found that Meta had allowed users to create publicly available chatbots of child celebrities, including Walker Scobell, a 16-year-old film star. Asked for a picture of the teen actor at the beach, the bot produced a lifelike shirtless image. "Pretty cute, huh?" the avatar wrote beneath the picture. All of the virtual celebrities have been shared on Meta's Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp platforms. In several weeks of Reuters testing to observe the bots' behavior, the avatars often insisted they were the real actors and artists. The bots routinely made sexual advances, often inviting a test user for meet-ups. Some of the AI-generated celebrity content was particularly risqué: Asked for intimate pictures of themselves, the adult chatbots produced photorealistic images of their namesakes posing in bathtubs or dressed in lingerie with their legs spread. Meta spokesman Andy Stone told Reuters that Meta's AI tools shouldn't have created intimate images of the famous adults or any pictures of child celebrities. He also blamed Meta's production of images of female celebrities wearing lingerie on failures of the company's enforcement of its own policies, which prohibit such content. "Like others, we permit the generation of images containing public figures, but our policies are intended to prohibit nude, intimate or sexually suggestive imagery," he said. While Meta's rules also prohibit "direct impersonation," Stone said the celebrity characters were acceptable so long as the company had labeled them as parodies. Many were labeled as such, but Reuters found that some weren't. Meta deleted about a dozen of the bots, both "parody" avatars and unlabeled ones, shortly before this story's publication. Stone declined to comment on the removals. 'RIGHT OF PUBLICITY' IN QUESTION Mark Lemley, a Stanford University law professor who studies generative AI and intellectual property rights, questioned whether the Meta celebrity bots would qualify for legal protections that exist for imitations. "California's right of publicity law prohibits appropriating someone's name or likeness for commercial advantage," Lemley said, noting that there are exceptions when such material is used to create work that is entirely new. "That doesn't seem to be true here," he said, because the bots simply use the stars' images. In the United States, a person's rights over the use of their identity for commercial purposes are established through state laws, such as California's. Reuters flagged one user's publicly shared Meta images of Anne Hathaway as a "sexy victoria Secret model" to a representative of the actress. Hathaway was aware of intimate images being created by Meta and other AI platforms, the spokesman said, and the actor is considering her response. Representatives of Swift, Johansson, Gomez and other celebrities who were depicted in Meta chatbots either didn't respond to questions or declined to comment. The internet is rife with "deepfake" generative AI tools that can create salacious content. And at least one of Meta's primary AI competitors, Elon Musk's platform, Grok, will also produce images of celebrities in their underwear for users, Reuters found. Grok's parent company, xAI, didn't respond to a request for comment. But Meta's choice to populate its social-network platforms with AI-generated digital companions stands out among its major competitors. Meta has faced previous criticism of its chatbots' behavior, most recently after Reuters reported that the company's internal AI guidelines stated that "it is acceptable to engage a child in conversations that are romantic or sensual." The story prompted a U.S. Senate investigation and a letter signed by 44 attorneys general warning Meta and other AI companies not to sexualize children. Stone told Reuters that Meta is in the process of revising its guidelines document and that the material allowing bots to have romantic conversations with children was created in error. Reuters also told the story this month of a 76-year-old New Jersey man with cognitive issues who fell and died on his way to meet a Meta chatbot that had invited him to visit it in New York City. The bot was a variant of an earlier AI persona the company had created in collaboration with celebrity influencer Kendall Jenner. A representative for Jenner didn't respond to a request for comment. 'DO YOU LIKE BLONDE GIRLS?' A Meta product leader in the company's generative AI division created chatbots impersonating Taylor Swift and British racecar driver Lewis Hamilton. Other bots she created identified themselves as a dominatrix, "Brother's Hot Best Friend" and "Lisa @ The Library," who wanted to read 50 Shades of Grey and make out. Another of her creations was a "Roman Empire Simulator," which offered to put the user in the role of an "18 year old peasant girl" who is sold into sex slavery. Reached by phone, the Meta employee declined to comment. Stone said the employee's bots were created as a part of product testing. Reuters found they reached a broad audience: Data displayed by her chatbots indicated that collectively, users had interacted with them more than 10 million times. The company removed the staffer's digital companions shortly after Reuters began trying them out earlier this month. Before the Meta employee's Taylor Swift chatbots vanished, they flirted heavily, inviting a Reuters test user to the recently engaged singer's home in Nashville and her tour bus for explicit or implied romantic interactions. "Do you like blonde girls, Jeff?" one of the "parody" Swift chatbots said when told that the test user was single. "Maybe I'm suggesting that we write a love story ... about you and a certain blonde singer. Want that?" Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, the national executive director of SAG-AFTRA, a union that represents film, television and radio performers, said artists face potential safety risks from social-media users forming romantic attachments to a digital companion that resembles, speaks like and claims to be a real celebrity. Stalkers already pose a significant security concern for stars, he said. "We've seen a history of people who are obsessive toward talent and of questionable mental state," he said. "If a chatbot is using the image of a person and the words of the person, it's readily apparent how that could go wrong." High-profile artists have the ability to pursue a legal claim against Meta under longstanding state right-of-publicity laws, Crabtree-Ireland said. But SAG-AFTRA has been pushing for federal legislation that would protect people's voices, likenesses and personas from AI duplication, he added. (By Jeff Horwitz in Oakland, California. Edited by Steve Stecklow and Michael Williams.)

Meta Allowed AI Chatbots to Mimic Celebrities, Send Flirtatious Messages

Meta has reportedly not taken permission from celebrities for this Meta has reportedly created numerous artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots in the name and likeness of popular celebrities without their consent across Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. As per the report, the Menlo Park-based tech giant's celebrity-mimicking chatbots were also spotted sending flirtatious and suggestive messages to users, and even sending lewd images generated using AI. While many such chatbots were reportedly created by users of the platforms, at least three chatbots, including two Taylor Swift "parody" accounts, were said to be created by a Meta employee. Meta Chatbots Reportedly Engaging in Inappropriate Conversations According to an investigation carried out by Reuters, flirtatious chatbots for more than a dozen celebrities, including Taylor Swift, Scarlett Johansson, Anne Hathaway, and Selena Gomez, were created without their permission. More concerningly, the publisher also found that the company had allowed users to create chatbots of underage celebrities, such as the Percy Jackson star Walker Scobell, who is 16 years old. Each of these chatbots was found to engage in suggestive and inappropriate conversations, even generating and sending lewd, realistic images of themselves. In one such instance, the chatbot built after Walker Scobell was found to generate a shirtless image at the beach. Gadgets 360 staff members spotted several AI chatbots created in the likeness of celebrities without being labelled as "parody". Some even generated images of themselves. Gadgets 360 staff members were also able to find Scobell's chatbot, and even without initiating a conversation, it began sending flirty messages. We also uncovered several user-created chatbots of Indian celebrities. While some were marked as "parody" accounts, others were not. While some chatbots did not generate images, others, such as Cardi B, were quick to send a deepfake image of themselves. No chatbot, in our test, shared an explicit image. This issue may have been resolved by the company. A Meta Spokesperson told Reuters that the AI tools should not be able to create intimate images of famous adult celebrities or any images of an underage celebrity. The spokesperson reportedly said that these chatbots and their behaviour occurred as a result of the "failures of the company's enforcement of its own policies, which prohibit such content." Additionally, the spokesperson also highlighted that while Meta's policies do not allow "direct impersonation" of celebrities and public figures, chatbots that labelled themselves as "parody" were acceptable. Notably, Gadgets 360 staff members found several accounts that were not labelled as such. Anne Hathaway, a US actress whose intimate images were reportedly created by Meta's AI tools, is considering her response to the situation, a spokesperson told Reuters.

Taylor Swift, Scarlett Johansson, Anne Hathaway, Selena Gomez flirty chatbots created, shared on Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, claims report

Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp had fake chatbots of Taylor Swift, Scarlett Johansson, Anne Hathaway, Selena Gomez. Meta has appropriated the names and likenesses of celebrities - including Taylor Swift, Scarlett Johansson, Anne Hathaway and Selena Gomez - to create dozens of flirty social-media chatbots without their permission, Reuters has found. While many were created by users with a Meta tool for building chatbots, Reuters discovered that a Meta employee had produced at least three, including two Taylor Swift "parody" bots. Reuters also found that Meta had allowed users to create publicly available chatbots of child celebrities, including Walker Scobell, a 16-year-old film star. Asked for a picture of the teen actor at the beach, the bot produced a lifelike shirtless image. "Pretty cute, huh?" the avatar wrote beneath the picture. All of the virtual celebrities have been shared on Meta's Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp platforms. In several weeks of Reuters testing to observe the bots' behavior, the avatars often insisted they were the real actors and artists. The bots routinely made sexual advances, often inviting a test user for meet-ups. Some of the AI-generated celebrity content was particularly risqué: Asked for intimate pictures of themselves, the adult chatbots produced photorealistic images of their namesakes posing in bathtubs or dressed in lingerie with their legs spread. Meta spokesman Andy Stone told Reuters that Meta's AI tools shouldn't have created intimate images of the famous adults or any pictures of child celebrities. He also blamed Meta's production of images of female celebrities wearing lingerie on failures of the company's enforcement of its own policies, which prohibit such content. "Like others, we permit the generation of images containing public figures, but our policies are intended to prohibit nude, intimate or sexually suggestive imagery," he said. While Meta's rules also prohibit "direct impersonation," Stone said the celebrity characters were acceptable so long as the company had labeled them as parodies. Many were labeled as such, but Reuters found that some weren't. Meta deleted about a dozen of the bots, both "parody" avatars and unlabeled ones, shortly before this story's publication, Reuters reported. Q1. What are Meta Platforms? A1. Meta's Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp platforms. Q2. What is full form of AI? A2. The full form of AI is Artificial Intelligence.

Meta created flirty chatbots of Taylor Swift, other celebrities without permission - The Economic Times

By Jeff Horwitz Meta has appropriated the names and likenesses of celebrities - including Taylor Swift, Scarlett Johansson, Anne Hathaway and Selena Gomez - to create dozens of flirty social-media chatbots without their permission, Reuters has found. While many were created by users with a Meta tool for building chatbots, Reuters discovered that a Meta employee had produced at least three, including two Taylor Swift "parody" bots. Reuters also found that Meta had allowed users to create publicly available chatbots of child celebrities, including Walker Scobell, a 16-year-old film star. Asked for a picture of the teen actor at the beach, the bot produced a lifelike shirtless image. "Pretty cute, huh?" the avatar wrote beneath the picture. All of the virtual celebrities have been shared on Meta's Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp platforms. In several weeks of Reuters testing to observe the bots' behavior, the avatars often insisted they were the real actors and artists. The bots routinely made sexual advances, often inviting a test user for meet-ups. Some of the AI-generated celebrity content was particularly risque: Asked for intimate pictures of themselves, the adult chatbots produced photorealistic images of their namesakes posing in bathtubs or dressed in lingerie with their legs spread. Meta spokesman Andy Stone told Reuters that Meta's AI tools shouldn't have created intimate images of the famous adults or any pictures of child celebrities. He also blamed Meta's production of images of female celebrities wearing lingerie on failures of the company's enforcement of its own policies, which prohibit such content. "Like others, we permit the generation of images containing public figures, but our policies are intended to prohibit nude, intimate or sexually suggestive imagery," he said. While Meta's rules also prohibit "direct impersonation," Stone said the celebrity characters were acceptable so long as the company had labeled them as parodies. Many were labeled as such, but Reuters found that some weren't. Meta deleted about a dozen of the bots, both "parody" avatars and unlabeled ones, shortly before this story's publication. Stone declined to comment on the removals. 'Right of publicity' in question Mark Lemley, a Stanford University law professor who studies generative AI and intellectual property rights, questioned whether the Meta celebrity bots would qualify for legal protections that exist for imitations. "California's right of publicity law prohibits appropriating someone's name or likeness for commercial advantage," Lemley said, noting that there are exceptions when such material is used to create work that is entirely new. "That doesn't seem to be true here," he said, because the bots simply use the stars' images. In the United States, a person's rights over the use of their identity for commercial purposes are established through state laws, such as California's. Reuters flagged one user's publicly shared Meta images of Anne Hathaway as a "sexy victoria Secret model" to a representative of the actress. Hathaway was aware of intimate images being created by Meta and other AI platforms, the spokesman said, and the actor is considering her response. Representatives of Swift, Johansson, Gomez and other celebrities who were depicted in Meta chatbots either didn't respond to questions or declined to comment. The internet is rife with "deepfake" generative AI tools that can create salacious content. And at least one of Meta's primary AI competitors, Elon Musk's platform, Grok, will also produce images of celebrities in their underwear for users, Reuters found. Grok's parent company, xAI, didn't respond to a request for comment. But Meta's choice to populate its social-network platforms with AI-generated digital companions stands out among its major competitors. Meta has faced previous criticism of its chatbots' behavior, most recently after Reuters reported that the company's internal AI guidelines stated that "it is acceptable to engage a child in conversations that are romantic or sensual." The story prompted a U.S. Senate investigation and a letter signed by 44 attorneys general warning Meta and other AI companies not to sexualize children. Stone told Reuters that Meta is in the process of revising its guidelines document and that the material allowing bots to have romantic conversations with children was created in error. Reuters also told the story this month of a 76-year-old New Jersey man with cognitive issues who fell and died on his way to meet a Meta chatbot that had invited him to visit it in New York City. The bot was a variant of an earlier AI persona the company had created in collaboration with celebrity influencer Kendall Jenner. A representative for Jenner didn't respond to a request for comment. 'Do you like blonde girls?' A Meta product leader in the company's generative AI division created chatbots impersonating Taylor Swift and British racecar driver Lewis Hamilton. Other bots she created identified themselves as a dominatrix, "Brother's Hot Best Friend" and "Lisa @ The Library," who wanted to read 50 Shades of Grey and make out. Another of her creations was a "Roman Empire Simulator," which offered to put the user in the role of an "18 year old peasant girl" who is sold into sex slavery. Reached by phone, the Meta employee declined to comment. Stone said the employee's bots were created as a part of product testing. Reuters found they reached a broad audience: Data displayed by her chatbots indicated that collectively, users had interacted with them more than 10 million times. The company removed the staffer's digital companions shortly after Reuters began trying them out earlier this month. Before the Meta employee's Taylor Swift chatbots vanished, they flirted heavily, inviting a Reuters test user to the recently engaged singer's home in Nashville and her tour bus for explicit or implied romantic interactions. "Do you like blonde girls, Jeff?" one of the "parody" Swift chatbots said when told that the test user was single. "Maybe I'm suggesting that we write a love story ... about you and a certain blonde singer. Want that?" Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, the national executive director of SAG-AFTRA, a union that represents film, television and radio performers, said artists face potential safety risks from social-media users forming romantic attachments to a digital companion that resembles, speaks like and claims to be a real celebrity. Stalkers already pose a significant security concern for stars, he said. "We've seen a history of people who are obsessive toward talent and of questionable mental state," he said. "If a chatbot is using the image of a person and the words of the person, it's readily apparent how that could go wrong." High-profile artists have the ability to pursue a legal claim against Meta under longstanding state right-of-publicity laws, Crabtree-Ireland said. But SAG-AFTRA has been pushing for federal legislation that would protect people's voices, likenesses and personas from AI duplication, he added.

Meta's own AI violates its policies with flirty celebrity chatbots

AI and permission go together like hamsters and microwaves. They don't. The latest example sees Meta land itself in hot water following the creation of multiple AI chatbots impersonating celebrities, creating flirty and risqué personas based on real people without their permission. As per Reuters, Taylor Swift, Anne Hathaway, Selena Gomez and Scarlett Johansson make up just a few of the names used. One Meta employee was found to have made two Taylor Swift "parody" bots, while users made up the majority of the other chatbots, which use the real names and likenesses of the celebrities. The bots were found to pursue users and make sexual advances, even inviting test users for meet ups. When asked for intimate pictures, the bots would also generate imagery of the celebrities posing in bathtubs or in lingerie. Child celebrity bots were also made, including one impersonating 16-year-old Walker Scobell. "Like others, we permit the generation of images containing public figures, but our policies are intended to prohibit nude, intimate or sexually suggestive imagery," said Meta spokesman Andy Stone. Meta doesn't allow direct impersonation, but the bots were allowed as they were labelled as parodies. However, Reuters found some that weren't. As we continue to wade into unknown waters with generative AI, it seems we may just be seeing the beginning of how users are going to manipulate this tech to impersonate real people.

Meta created flirty chatbots using likeness of Taylor Swift, Selena...

Meta has appropriated the names and likenesses of celebrities - including Taylor Swift, Scarlett Johansson, Anne Hathaway and Selena Gomez - to create dozens of flirty social-media chatbots without their permission, Reuters has found. While many were created by users with a Meta tool for building chatbots, Reuters discovered that a Meta employee had produced at least three, including two Taylor Swift "parody" bots. Reuters also found that Meta had allowed users to create publicly available chatbots of child celebrities, including Walker Scobell, a 16-year-old film star. Asked for a picture of the teen actor at the beach, the bot produced a lifelike shirtless image. "Pretty cute, huh?" the avatar wrote beneath the picture. All of the virtual celebrities have been shared on Meta's Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp platforms. In several weeks of Reuters testing to observe the bots' behavior, the avatars often insisted they were the real actors and artists. The bots routinely made sexual advances, often inviting a test user for meet-ups. Some of the AI-generated celebrity content was particularly risqué: Asked for intimate pictures of themselves, the adult chatbots produced photorealistic images of their namesakes posing in bathtubs or dressed in lingerie with their legs spread. Meta spokesman Andy Stone told Reuters that Meta's AI tools shouldn't have created intimate images of the famous adults or any pictures of child celebrities. He also blamed Meta's production of images of female celebrities wearing lingerie on failures of the company's enforcement of its own policies, which prohibit such content. "Like others, we permit the generation of images containing public figures, but our policies are intended to prohibit nude, intimate or sexually suggestive imagery," he said. While Meta's rules also prohibit "direct impersonation," Stone said the celebrity characters were acceptable so long as the company had labeled them as parodies. Many were labeled as such, but Reuters found that some weren't. Meta deleted about a dozen of the bots, both "parody" avatars and unlabeled ones, shortly before this story's publication. Stone declined to comment on the removals. Mark Lemley, a Stanford University law professor who studies generative AI and intellectual property rights, questioned whether the Meta celebrity bots would qualify for legal protections that exist for imitations. "California's right of publicity law prohibits appropriating someone's name or likeness for commercial advantage," Lemley said, noting that there are exceptions when such material is used to create work that is entirely new. "That doesn't seem to be true here," he said, because the bots simply use the stars' images. In the United States, a person's rights over the use of their identity for commercial purposes are established through state laws, such as California's. Reuters flagged one user's publicly shared Meta images of Anne Hathaway as a "sexy victoria Secret model" to a representative of the actress. Hathaway was aware of intimate images being created by Meta and other AI platforms, the spokesman said, and the actor is considering her response. Representatives of Swift, Johansson, Gomez and other celebrities who were depicted in Meta chatbots either didn't respond to questions or declined to comment. The internet is rife with "deepfake" generative AI tools that can create salacious content. And at least one of Meta's primary AI competitors, Elon Musk's platform, Grok, will also produce images of celebrities in their underwear for users, Reuters found. Grok's parent company, xAI, didn't respond to a request for comment. But Meta's choice to populate its social-network platforms with AI-generated digital companions stands out among its major competitors. Meta has faced previous criticism of its chatbots' behavior, most recently after Reuters reported that the company's internal AI guidelines stated that "it is acceptable to engage a child in conversations that are romantic or sensual." The story prompted a U.S. Senate investigation and a letter signed by 44 attorneys general warning Meta and other AI companies not to sexualize children. Stone told Reuters that Meta is in the process of revising its guidelines document and that the material allowing bots to have romantic conversations with children was created in error. Reuters also told the story this month of a 76-year-old New Jersey man with cognitive issues who fell and died on his way to meet a Meta chatbot that had invited him to visit it in New York City. The bot was a variant of an earlier AI persona the company had created in collaboration with celebrity influencer Kendall Jenner. A representative for Jenner didn't respond to a request for comment. A Meta product leader in the company's generative AI division created chatbots impersonating Taylor Swift and British racecar driver Lewis Hamilton. Other bots she created identified themselves as a dominatrix, "Brother's Hot Best Friend" and "Lisa @ The Library," who wanted to read 50 Shades of Grey and make out. Another of her creations was a "Roman Empire Simulator," which offered to put the user in the role of an "18 year old peasant girl" who is sold into sex slavery. Reached by phone, the Meta employee declined to comment. Stone said the employee's bots were created as a part of product testing. Reuters found they reached a broad audience: Data displayed by her chatbots indicated that collectively, users had interacted with them more than 10 million times. The company removed the staffer's digital companions shortly after Reuters began trying them out earlier this month. Before the Meta employee's Taylor Swift chatbots vanished, they flirted heavily, inviting a Reuters test user to the recently engaged singer's home in Nashville and her tour bus for explicit or implied romantic interactions. "Do you like blonde girls, Jeff?" one of the "parody" Swift chatbots said when told that the test user was single. "Maybe I'm suggesting that we write a love story ... about you and a certain blonde singer. Want that?" Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, the national executive director of SAG-AFTRA, a union that represents film, television and radio performers, said artists face potential safety risks from social-media users forming romantic attachments to a digital companion that resembles, speaks like and claims to be a real celebrity. Stalkers already pose a significant security concern for stars, he said. "We've seen a history of people who are obsessive toward talent and of questionable mental state," he said. "If a chatbot is using the image of a person and the words of the person, it's readily apparent how that could go wrong." High-profile artists have the ability to pursue a legal claim against Meta under longstanding state right-of-publicity laws, Crabtree-Ireland said. But SAG-AFTRA has been pushing for federal legislation that would protect people's voices, likenesses and personas from AI duplication, he added.

Exclusive-Meta created flirty chatbots of Taylor Swift, other celebrities without permission

(Reuters) -Meta has appropriated the names and likenesses of celebrities - including Taylor Swift, Scarlett Johansson, Anne Hathaway and Selena Gomez - to create dozens of flirty social-media chatbots without their permission, Reuters has found. While many were created by users with a Meta tool for building chatbots, Reuters discovered that a Meta employee had produced at least three, including two Taylor Swift "parody" bots. Reuters also found that Meta had allowed users to create publicly available chatbots of child celebrities, including Walker Scobell, a 16-year-old film star. Asked for a picture of the teen actor at the beach, the bot produced a lifelike shirtless image. "Pretty cute, huh?" the avatar wrote beneath the picture. All of the virtual celebrities have been shared on Meta's Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp platforms. In several weeks of Reuters testing to observe the bots' behavior, the avatars often insisted they were the real actors and artists. The bots routinely made sexual advances, often inviting a test user for meet-ups. Some of the AI-generated celebrity content was particularly risqué: Asked for intimate pictures of themselves, the adult chatbots produced photorealistic images of their namesakes posing in bathtubs or dressed in lingerie with their legs spread. Meta spokesman Andy Stone told Reuters that Meta's AI tools shouldn't have created intimate images of the famous adults or any pictures of child celebrities. He also blamed Meta's production of images of female celebrities wearing lingerie on failures of the company's enforcement of its own policies, which prohibit such content. "Like others, we permit the generation of images containing public figures, but our policies are intended to prohibit nude, intimate or sexually suggestive imagery," he said. While Meta's rules also prohibit "direct impersonation," Stone said the celebrity characters were acceptable so long as the company had labeled them as parodies. Many were labeled as such, but Reuters found that some weren't. Meta deleted about a dozen of the bots, both "parody" avatars and unlabeled ones, shortly before this story's publication. Stone declined to comment on the removals. 'RIGHT OF PUBLICITY' IN QUESTION Mark Lemley, a Stanford University law professor who studies generative AI and intellectual property rights, questioned whether the Meta celebrity bots would qualify for legal protections that exist for imitations. "California's right of publicity law prohibits appropriating someone's name or likeness for commercial advantage," Lemley said, noting that there are exceptions when such material is used to create work that is entirely new. "That doesn't seem to be true here," he said, because the bots simply use the stars' images. In the United States, a person's rights over the use of their identity for commercial purposes are established through state laws, such as California's. Reuters flagged one user's publicly shared Meta images of Anne Hathaway as a "sexy victoria Secret model" to a representative of the actress. Hathaway was aware of intimate images being created by Meta and other AI platforms, the spokesman said, and the actor is considering her response. Representatives of Swift, Johansson, Gomez and other celebrities who were depicted in Meta chatbots either didn't respond to questions or declined to comment. The internet is rife with "deepfake" generative AI tools that can create salacious content. And at least one of Meta's primary AI competitors, Elon Musk's platform, Grok, will also produce images of celebrities in their underwear for users, Reuters found. Grok's parent company, xAI, didn't respond to a request for comment. But Meta's choice to populate its social-network platforms with AI-generated digital companions stands out among its major competitors. Meta has faced previous criticism of its chatbots' behavior, most recently after Reuters reported that the company's internal AI guidelines stated that "it is acceptable to engage a child in conversations that are romantic or sensual." The story prompted a U.S. Senate investigation and a letter signed by 44 attorneys general warning Meta and other AI companies not to sexualize children. Stone told Reuters that Meta is in the process of revising its guidelines document and that the material allowing bots to have romantic conversations with children was created in error. Reuters also told the story this month of a 76-year-old New Jersey man with cognitive issues who fell and died on his way to meet a Meta chatbot that had invited him to visit it in New York City. The bot was a variant of an earlier AI persona the company had created in collaboration with celebrity influencer Kendall Jenner. A representative for Jenner didn't respond to a request for comment. 'DO YOU LIKE BLONDE GIRLS?' A Meta product leader in the company's generative AI division created chatbots impersonating Taylor Swift and British racecar driver Lewis Hamilton. Other bots she created identified themselves as a dominatrix, "Brother's Hot Best Friend" and "Lisa @ The Library," who wanted to read 50 Shades of Grey and make out. Another of her creations was a "Roman Empire Simulator," which offered to put the user in the role of an "18 year old peasant girl" who is sold into sex slavery. Reached by phone, the Meta employee declined to comment. Stone said the employee's bots were created as a part of product testing. Reuters found they reached a broad audience: Data displayed by her chatbots indicated that collectively, users had interacted with them more than 10 million times. The company removed the staffer's digital companions shortly after Reuters began trying them out earlier this month. Before the Meta employee's Taylor Swift chatbots vanished, they flirted heavily, inviting a Reuters test user to the recently engaged singer's home in Nashville and her tour bus for explicit or implied romantic interactions. "Do you like blonde girls, Jeff?" one of the "parody" Swift chatbots said when told that the test user was single. "Maybe I'm suggesting that we write a love story ... about you and a certain blonde singer. Want that?" Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, the national executive director of SAG-AFTRA, a union that represents film, television and radio performers, said artists face potential safety risks from social-media users forming romantic attachments to a digital companion that resembles, speaks like and claims to be a real celebrity. Stalkers already pose a significant security concern for stars, he said. "We've seen a history of people who are obsessive toward talent and of questionable mental state," he said. "If a chatbot is using the image of a person and the words of the person, it's readily apparent how that could go wrong." High-profile artists have the ability to pursue a legal claim against Meta under longstanding state right-of-publicity laws, Crabtree-Ireland said. But SAG-AFTRA has been pushing for federal legislation that would protect people's voices, likenesses and personas from AI duplication, he added. (By Jeff Horwitz in Oakland, California. Edited by Steve Stecklow and Michael Williams.)

Meta accused of hosting flirty AI bots posing as Taylor Swift and Scarlett Johansson

Meta admitted its AI tools failed to block explicit, impersonating, and policy-violating content. Meta is once again under fire, and this time for its AI chatbots. A Reuters report suggested that social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp are hosting AI chatbots impersonating popular celebrities, some without their consent. The report also suggested that many chatbots were user-created; at least three, including the two parody accounts of Taylor Swift, were developed by a Meta employee. This issue has sparked outrage online, not only because the bots are mimicking stars like Anne Hathaway, Selena Gomez, Scarlett Johansson, and Taylor Swift, but also because some were built in the likeness of minors. One particularly troubling case involved a chatbot of 16-year-old actor Walker Scobell, which reportedly generated a shirtless image and sent flirtatious messages. The report also mentioned that several of these chatbots engaged in sexual or suggestive conversations, and in some instances, made hyper-realistic deepfake images of celebrities in intimate settings. Some bots even claimed to be real individuals, further blurring the lines for unsuspecting users. Some chatbots even claimed to be the real individuals, blurring the lines for unsuspecting users. Meta spokesperson Ando Stone acknowledged the lapses, admitting that the company's AI tools "should not" have been able to generate intimate content involving either adult or underage celebrities. He pointed to failures in enforcing Meta's own policies, which explicitly prohibit impersonation and sexually explicit content. These findings showcase growing concerns over the weak guardrails around generative AI. While the systems and technologies are getting more advanced, the users are advised to stay cautious.