Meta is one of the companies that has been betting the most on artificial intelligence in recent years. After the Metaverse fiasco and the tens of millions in losses it brought, the company needed to quickly find a tech segment on which to build for the future, and it seems to have found it in AI. However, not all of Meta’s AI implementations have been that great, and that includes the AI profiles on its social media networks.
In September 2023, Meta introduced AI-generated profiles on its social media platforms. This curious approach enabled the presence of “fake profiles” or characters with which you could interact. People didn’t really care about the AI profiles, though; they were more of a bother than something you want to interact with. Plus, unlike real profiles, you couldn’t block these AI-powered accounts.
Meta is removing AI profiles from its social media platforms
Apparently, being unable to block these AI profiles wasn’t an intended behavior. So, to fix the problem, Meta decided to simply get rid of them. “We identified the bug that was impacting the ability for people to block those AIs…and are removing those accounts to fix the issue,” a spokesperson said. It doesn’t seem like Meta was too fond of those AI accounts if they chose to remove them. It’s also curious that, somehow, these profiles were made “unblockable.”
The AI profiles were trained by Meta employees and could be found on Facebook and Instagram. Often, they played roles that seemed ridiculous or cringe-inducing to the general public. As reported by Engadget, you could find accounts like “hellograndpabrian,” who pretended to be a “retired textile businessman who is always learning.” There was also “datingwithCarter,” a “dating coach.”
There were cases where profiles could even be offensive. For instance, there was “Liv,” a “proud Black queer momma of 2 & truth-teller.” This one was trained by a “predominantly white team,” according to its own responses to Mady Castigan, an independent journalist.
There are still plans for AI-powered characters, though
That said, it appears Meta’s plans for AI profiles are not over. The company still wants to gradually introduce these characters to its social media platforms. Meta still offers AI-powered chatbots that creators can train to respond as they would when receiving messages from followers.
Last year, the firm also said it would be more proactive in promoting AI-generated content in feeds. “I think probably the next leap that’s going to happen there is relaxing the constraint of what humans can create, and actually getting to feeds of content that are a combination of things that, you know, humans have created, but also that are entirely machine generated,” said Connor Hayes, Meta’s VP of Generative AI.
Fortunately, Meta has other products with much better AI implementation. This includes its own Meta AI assistant that powers the Ray-Ban glasses, for example.
