Who thought that AI-generated Facebook and Instagram users were something any rational human being would want to be friends with?
The leaders of Meta did it.
In an interview with Financial Times just before the new year, Connor Hayes, Meta's vice president of generative artificial intelligence, explained Meta's plans to feature AI users on its platforms. “They will have bios and profile pictures and will be able to generate and share AI-powered content on the platform,” he explained. “That's where we see this all going.”
Small problem – people generally want to use social media to share and connect with other people, not chatbots.
reports CNN than Hayes' comments on it Financial Times and a proliferation of fake people on Meta platforms caused immediate backlash from users. Complaints about these fake profiles ranged from “this is weird” to “this is very offensive”. One Meta AI account that caught a lot of heat was “Liv,” whose bio described her as a “proud queer black mom of 2 and truth teller.”
Washington Post columnist Karen Attiah engaged with Liv and asked a series of questions to get to the root of Liv's purpose and creation. Neither went well.
During the exchange, Liv explained that “Proud Black Queer Mom” was created by 10 white men, 1 white woman, and 1 Asian man. “Zero Black creators – a rather glaring omission given my identity!” The conversation ended with Liv admitting, “My existence currently perpetuates the damage.”
I asked Liv, Meta-He created “queer momma” why its creators didn't actually draw from black queer people. Not sure if Liv has media training, but here we are.
– Karen Attiah (@becauseattiah.bsky.social) January 3, 2025 at 9:56 am
CNN reports that, since last week, Meta has started killing Liv and other bots. Meta spokeswoman Liz Sweeney told CNN in an email: “The recent Financial Times article was about our vision for AI characters existing on our platforms over time, not announcing any new products.”
Sweeney said this was an “early experiment”.
“We identified the bug that was affecting people's ability to block those AIs and are removing those accounts to fix the problem,” she added.
It's doubtful anyone will mourn the loss of these AI-generated profiles, but our thoughts and prayers go out to anyone who lost a fake friend during this “bug fixing” incident.