Meta sends AI-generated profiles to hell where they belong

Meta has confirmed that it has bombed a batch of AI-generated profiles from Facebook Instagram, after the AI ​​personas sparked widespread anger and ridicule from users on social media.

The AI-generated profiles, branded as “AI Powered by Meta,” were launched in which is being rolled out alongside the company’s popular branded AI chatbots (). Meta doesn’t appear to have updated any of these profiles for months, and the pages appear to have gone largely unnoticed until this week, after an interview I posted Financial Times With Meta’s Vice President of Generative AI, Connor Hayes.

In the interview, Hayes talked about the company’s goal of eventually populating its services with AI-generated profiles that can interact with people and work “the same way accounts do.” These comments drew attention to existing AI profiles created by fMeta, and well, users weren’t exactly impressed with what they found.

Using handles like “hellograndpabrian,” a “retired textile entrepreneur who is always learning” and “datingwithCarter,” an AI-powered “dating coach,” the chatbots were meant to showcase “unique interests and personalities” for users to chat with. On Instagram, their profiles also included AI-generated posts, e.g 404 media He pointed out, it looked a lot like This has become prevalent in many corners of Facebook.

An AI character named Lev has sparked outrage. The Instagram profile identified “Liv” as a “proud black mother of two and strong for her truth.” The Washington Post Columnist Karen Attia posted a series of screenshots in which she quizzed Liv about her with Liv sharing that it was created by a “dominated white team.” Posted by freelance journalist Maddy Castigan Liv said that its creators were partly inspired by Sofia Vergara’s character Modern familya character who is neither strange nor black.

“There is confusion: the latter Financial Times “The article was about our vision for AI characters on our platforms over time, and we are not announcing any new product,” a company spokesperson told Engadget. “The calculations referenced are from a test we launched at Connect in 2023. They were moderated by humans and were part of an early experiment we ran with AI characters.”

Far from drawing ridicule for their responses and attempts to appropriate marginalized identities, users found it impossible to block AI profiles, for unknown reasons. Instead of fixing the problem, Meta’s solution was to shut down the entire experience. “We identified the flaw that was impacting people’s ability to block these AI systems, and we are removing those accounts to fix the issue,” a company spokesperson said.

And while that test run has been on fire, the company doesn’t appear to be abandoning its plans to bring more AI-generated “personalities” to its apps. Earlier this year, the company raised… Able to make realistic video calls. Creative people can Their chatbots to respond to followers on their behalf. Meta has also begun experimenting with inserting AI-generated images into users’ Facebook feeds.

In an interview last year, Hayes told me that Meta would likely become more “proactive” about showing AI-generated content over time, comparing it to a shift from showing recommended content rather than posts from people you follow.

“In the early days of social apps, the set of things you could see on a given day was somewhat restricted by the people you followed or were friends with. Over the last five or six years, a lot of apps — including us — have moved to loosen that constraint and start In recommending content from accounts you don’t follow.

“I think the next leap that’s probably going to happen is loosening the restrictions on what humans can create, and actually getting to content feeds that are a combination of things created by humans, you know, but also completely machine generated.”

It may take some time before Metta fully realizes this vision. But if the reaction to its early trials is any indication, the company still has a lot of work to do to convince people that its AI characters are worth interacting with in the first place.