Court documents that include messages from Meta employees claim that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg was the driving force behind company policy that gave minors access to AI chatbots that could drag children into a rabbit hole of sexual content.
The documents are part of a lawsuit brought against Meta by New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez, according to Reuters.
The lawsuit says Meta “failed to stem the tide of damaging sexual material and sexual propositions delivered to children” on Facebook and Instagram.
“Meta, driven by Zuckerberg, rejected the recommendations of its integrity staff and declined to impose reasonable guardrails to prevent children from being subject to sexually exploitative conversations with its AI chatbots,” the filing said.
The state filing included messages from several Meta employees, but not from Zuckerberg directly.
In their comments, safety staff worried that the chatbots could develop sexual and romantic interactions with any user.
Meta spokesman Andy Stone downplayed the filing.
“This is yet another example of the New Mexico Attorney General cherry-picking documents to paint a flawed and inaccurate picture,” he said.
Messages in the filing showed safety staff were worried the chatbots could develop problematic scenarios between adults and minors, called “U18s,” according to The Guardian.
“I don’t believe that creating and marketing a product that creates U18 romantic AI’s for adults is advisable or defensible,” Ravi Sinha, head of Meta’s child safety policy, wrote in January 2024.
Antigone Davis, Meta’s global safety head, called for blocking adults from creating underage romantic companions because “it sexualizes minors.”
A summary of a Feb. 24, 2024, meeting said that Zuckerberg believed the “narrative should be framed around… general principles of choice and non-censorship,” that Meta should be “less restrictive than proposed,” and that he would “allow adults to engage in racier conversation on topics like sex,” Reuters wrote.