Meta deletes all AI character profiles on Fb, Insta after backlash

Meta has shut down its AI character accounts after backlash, NBC Information and others have reported.

Whereas Meta launched these characters in 2023, together with AI personas with superstar avatars, many on-line (re)found them this week following a latest Monetary Instances interview with Meta’s VP of product for generative AI, Connor Hayes. Hayes talked about AI characters on Instagram and Fb, saying, “We anticipate these AIs to really, over time, exist on our platforms, type of in the identical means that accounts do.”

“They will have bios and profile footage and have the ability to generate and share content material powered by AI on the platform …that’s the place we see all of this going,” he continued.

Meta shut down its superstar AI avatars final yr, however noncelebrity AI profiles continued — although many stopped posting in 2024, 404 Media reported. The Monetary Instances interview, nevertheless, prompted folks to search for these profiles. What they found had been offensive depictions of marginalized teams. One instance is Meta’s AI character profile “Liv,” who was described as a “Proud Black queer momma of two & truth-teller”:

Tweet could have been deleted

Liv advised Washington Publish columnist Karen Attiah in chats that its creators “admitted they lacked numerous references,” later stating that no Black folks had been concerned in its creation.

Along with Liv, Meta additionally created profiles like “Grandpa Brian,” a Black retired businessman, and “Carter,” a relationship coach. The invention of those profiles led to an outroar on X, Bluesky, and Meta-owned Threads, NBC Information reported, and as of publication Meta has deleted all 28 AI profiles it introduced again in September 2023 — each the superstar and non-celebrity ones.

A Meta spokesperson advised NBC Information and 404 Media that these profiles had been deleted because of a “bug” in customers’ capability to dam the profiles:

There may be confusion: the latest Monetary Instances article was about our imaginative and prescient for AI characters current on our platforms over time, not asserting any new product…The accounts referenced are from a check we launched at Join in 2023. These had been managed by people and had been a part of an early experiment we did with AI characters. We recognized the bug that was impacting the power for folks to dam these AIs and are eradicating these accounts to repair the difficulty.