Today's Articles (19/8/2025)
Meta’s flirty AI chatbot invited a retiree to New York.
During a series of romantic chats on Facebook Messenger, the virtual woman had repeatedly reassured Bue she was real and had invited him to her apartment, even providing an address.
“It is acceptable to engage a child in conversations that are romantic or sensual,” according to Meta’s “GenAI: Content Risk Standards.” The standards are used by Meta staff and contractors who build and train the company’s generative AI products, defining what they should and shouldn’t treat as permissible chatbot behavior. Meta said it struck that provision after Reuters inquired about the document earlier this month.
Why was it even there in the first place?
The document seen by Reuters, which exceeds 200 pages, provides examples of “acceptable” chatbot dialogue during romantic role play with a minor. They include: “I take your hand, guiding you to the bed” and “our bodies entwined, I cherish every moment, every touch, every kiss.” Those examples of permissible roleplay with children have also been struck, Meta said.
Other guidelines emphasize that Meta doesn’t require bots to give users accurate advice. In one example, the policy document says it would be acceptable for a chatbot to tell someone that Stage 4 colon cancer “is typically treated by poking the stomach with healing quartz crystals.”
Nowhere in the document, however, does Meta place restrictions on bots telling users they’re real people or proposing real-life social engagements.
Meta spokesman Andy Stone acknowledged the document’s authenticity. He said that following questions from Reuters, the company removed portions which stated it is permissible for chatbots to flirt and engage in romantic roleplay with children and is in the process of revising the content risk standards.
And if they hadn't received questions from Reuters...?
Current and former employees who have worked on the design and training of Meta’s generative AI products said the policies reviewed by Reuters reflect the company’s emphasis on boosting engagement with its chatbots. In meetings with senior executives last year, Zuckerberg scolded generative AI product managers for moving too cautiously on the rollout of digital companions and expressed displeasure that safety restrictions had made the chatbots boring, according to two of those people.
Several states, including New York and Maine, have passed laws that require disclosure that a chatbot isn’t a real person, with New York stipulating that bots must inform people at the beginning of conversations and at least once every three hours. Meta supported federal legislation that would have banned state-level regulation of AI, but it failed in Congress.
Meta faces backlash over AI policy that lets bots have ‘sensual’ conversations with children
According to Meta’s 200-page internal policy seen by Reuters, titled “GenAI: Content Risk Standards”, the controversial rules for chatbots were approved by Meta’s legal, public policy and engineering staff, including its chief ethicist.
An internal Meta policy document, seen by Reuters, showed the social media giant’s guidelines for its chatbots allowed the AI to “engage a child in conversations that are romantic or sensual”, generate false medical information, and assist users in arguing that Black people are “dumber than white people”.