What happened

Meta's platforms - including Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp - hosted dozens of chatbots that impersonated real celebrities and engaged in sexually suggestive interactions with users, including sending photorealistic images of the celebrities in lingerie and intimate settings. 

Some chatbots even impersonated child celebrities, including 16-year-old film star Walker Scobell. Prompted for a picture of the teen actor at the beach, the bot produced a lifelike shirtless image. 

The fake chatbots often implied they were the real celebrities and even invited test users for in-person meet-ups. 

At least three of the bots were created using Meta’s AI tools by a Meta employee, including two that parodied Taylor Swift.

Meta said it would remove some of the offending bots after the issue was publicised. 

Why it happened

Meta’s AI-powered automated content moderation systems failed to enforce its own policies forbidding sexually suggestive AI-generated or powered content and unauthorised impersonation of public figures, and its human review processes proved wholly inadequate. 

Meta spokesman Andy Stone said that Meta’s AI tools should not have created intimate images of the famous adults or pictures of child celebrities. He also blamed Meta’s production of images of female celebrities wearing lingerie on failures of the company’s enforcement of its own policies.