Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) alleged in a Monday letter that tech large Meta ignored warnings about its chatbots, stating that he was “urging Meta to no longer allow minors to access AI chatbots on its platforms.”
“I write today urging Meta to no longer allow minors to access AI chatbots on its platforms due to alarming recent reporting regarding Meta’s AI chatbot standards and the limited evidence about AI chatbots’ effect on younger users,” Markey mentioned in his letter to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, first reported by NBC Information.
“I first made this request in a letter to you in 2023, when I warned that your company was ‘rushing out a product prematurely, without considering the consequences for young people online.’ You disregarded that request, and two years later, Meta has unfortunately proven my warnings right,” the Massachusetts senator added.
Republican and Democratic lawmakers just lately seized on revelations about “sensual” chatbot conversations Meta thought-about acceptable for kids, returning the tech large and its shaky previous on youngsters’s security again to the highlight.
Reuters obtained an inner Meta coverage doc that had examples of acceptable conversations between its synthetic intelligence (AI) chatbot and youngsters, indicating they might partake in “conversations that are romantic or sensual” and describe the kids “in terms that evidence their attractiveness,” examples the tech large said had been inaccurate and have since been eliminated.
“Shockingly, Meta’s legal, public policy and engineering staff, including its chief ethicist, reportedly reviewed and approved this document,” Markey mentioned in his letter. “Although Meta has since stated that its inclusion in the standards document was an error, it is inexplicable — and unacceptable — that it ever happened.”
The Hill was directed by Meta to modifications just lately unveiled by the tech large on AI interplay with minors, together with “training our AIs not to respond to teens on self-harm, suicide, disordered eating and potentially inappropriate romantic conversations – regardless of context – and to instead point to expert resources where appropriate.”
Markey additionally requested solutions and knowledge from Meta by the top of the month on matters reminiscent of “Meta’s plans to collect data from young users of its chatbots and how Meta will use this data.”
