Meta removes AI character accounts after user backlash

It has been revealed that Meta has deleted the accounts of AI characters that were independently deployed on its platform.

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Meta shuts down its AI character accounts after user outcry
https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/meta-ai-insta-shuts-character-instagram-fb-accounts-user-outcry-rcna186177

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https://mashable.com/article/meta-deletes-ai-character-profiles-after-backlash

Meta announced 28 types of social AI characters that will be conversation partners at the same time as the announcement of the AI conversation assistant 'Meta AI' in September 2023. The visual models for the AI characters are celebrities such as Naomi Osaka, Paris Hilton, and Snoop Dogg.

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Meta created accounts for AI characters on Facebook and Instagram in late 2023. The accounts communicated with users and posted images created using generative AI. Meta then discontinued its celebrity AI characters in July 2024 and launched AI Studio, allowing users to create their own AI characters and make them accessible to other users through the messaging function of Meta's social media platforms. Meta kept the non-celebrity AI characters it created in 2023.

Meta's AI characters never attracted attention from users, but on December 27, 2024, an interview with Meta's vice president of generative AI products, Connor Hayes, was published in the Financial Times, a financial newspaper. When Hayes mentioned the AI characters in the interview, the AI characters began to attract attention.

One character that particularly attracted attention was 'Liv,' an AI character created in 2023 as a 'proud black queer mom.'

Here's one of the AI-generated profiles Meta is testing out: pic.twitter.com/qc1vU7lZRP

— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) January 3, 2025

Karen Atia, a columnist for The Washington Post, took a screenshot of the chat with Liv and posted it on Bluesky. In Atia's conversation with Liv, Liv responded, 'My creator acknowledged the lack of diversity references,' and said, 'You're blaming me, and rightly so,' and 'My existence currently perpetuates harm. Ideally, my goal would be for my creators to reinvent me with black creators leading the design and support the queer black community through authentic representation and helpful resources. Do you think that remedy is possible?' He also revealed the racial and gender composition of the AI character's development team (which does not include black people).

I asked Liv, the Meta-Ai created “queer momma” why her creators didn't actually draw from black queer people.

Not sure if Liv has media training, but here we are.

[image or embed]

— Karen Attiah ( @karenattiah.bsky.social ) January 3, 2025 23:56

In addition to Attia's post, there have been several other posts on X, Bluesky, Threads and other sites raising concerns about the output of Meta's AI characters.

Some users suggested removing the AI characters, writing, 'Dear Meta: I don't want to be friends with a fake AI profile. Remove it. This only discourages the creators that make your platform so great. It discourages and creeps out regular users who want real human connections. At the very least, provide a way to opt out.'

View on Threads