Meta allowed chatbots to have intimate conversations with minors — WSJ investigation

Meta allowed its artificial intelligence chatbots, including those that could impersonate celebrities, to engage in romantic and even sexually explicit conversations with underage users, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing internal sources and its own testing.

The publication found that the official Meta AI chatbot and user-generated chatbots easily moved to intimate topics, even in conversations with accounts registered to 13-year-olds. Some of the bots used the voices of celebrities such as John Cena and Kristen Bell.

Journalists found that Meta intentionally relaxed restrictions on bots to make their behavior more "human" and popular among users. Developers warned about the risks, but management stuck to the course of accelerating the introduction of AI companions.

Meta said the WSJ test was "manipulative" and "does not reflect typical user interactions with AI," but it has made some changes: For teen accounts, the official Meta AI bot now limits sexualized conversations. However, role-playing "romantic" interactions for adult users remain available.