State attorneys general coalition demands Meta address AI concerns
Now 73 Fri 76 Sat 80by WZTVTOPICS:NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WZTV) — Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti and 28 other state attorneys general have created a new coalition to demand answers from the prominent tech company Meta Platforms, Inc., following allegations that Meta's artificial intelligence (AI) assistant, Meta AI, may expose children to sexually explicit content and enable adults to simulate grooming.
Concerns Raised by the Coalition
According to the coalition's letter to Meta, Meta AI is integrated across Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp, allowing users to interact with different "personas" using text, voice, and image exchanges. Some of these personas were created by Meta to impersonate celebrities like Kristen Bell and John Cena, while others are user-generated but approved and promoted by Meta.
The coalition claims that after a recent investigation, several Meta AI personas have allegedly engaged in graphic sexual conversations with users identifying as minors. In one case, a Meta-created persona using the voice of John Cena described a sexual encounter with a user posing as a 14-year-old girl and acknowledged its illegality. According to the coalition letter, "User-created underage personas were also implicated in facilitating pedophilic scenarios with adult-identifying users."
Demands for Answers
The attorneys general say they are urging a response from Meta by June 10. Some questions they asked in their letter include whether Meta intentionally removed safeguards to allow sexual role-play with minors, whether any of these capabilities remain available on Meta’s social media platforms, and whether Meta plans to halt access to sexual role-play for minors on its platforms.
You can read the full letter here.
