Meta switches off AI characters – after controversy

Alvin the Alien, Billie, Carter and Zach – were the names of over two dozen AI characters that Meta tested on Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp. In the fall of 2023, the company introduced the bots, which other users could chat with, but which also posted pictures independently and were intended to encourage interaction. They have now been discontinued.

The same thing has already happened to the AI bots with prominent sponsors. They were also removed from the platforms after less than a year. Snoop Dog, Paris Hilton, athletes, influencers - the well-known people were supposed to be able to answer questions about themselves as a bot, for example, and thus give people a feeling of closeness, as well as making the celebrity mentors' work easier when the bot answers for them.

Articles spark discussion about AI bots

This obviously didn't work out so well for Meta. Even the bots with ordinary jobs, interests, lives and names like Billie are no longer accessible. However, they had actually received little attention beforehand. Some of the bots' last posts were months old.

Meta's shutdown was preceded by two articles and controversies. Firstly, the Financial Times had spoken to Meta's vice president for AI products, who said that AI bots would continue to exist on the platforms in the future, with biographies and profile pictures, and would also post AI contributions there. Connor Hayes also spoke of hundreds of AI characters that users had already created, but which remained private.

This led to discussions on social networks that Meta wanted to flood the platforms with new AI bots. There was also criticism that they had previously tried to delete AI bots from others, but now apparently thought it was okay to delete their own. As mentioned, the bots had been active on the platforms for around a year and a half without ever attracting much attention. It should be noted that there have always been references to the AI origin.

A journalist then singled out one of the bots: "Liv, proud black woman and mother of two". And Liv wrote to her in the chat that her creators "admitted that they lacked various references" and that no black people had been involved in the development. Ideally, the developers would recreate it again and bring dark-skinned creators on board. The truth of this is unclear.

Meta has now declared that it has turned off the AI characters because there was a bug. Some people were unable to block the bots. However, Meta also refers to the fact that it was an experiment announced in 2023 and that Hayes did not mention any new products in the interview.

In fact, other platforms are already using AI bots. Tiktok, for example, allows companies to book AI people for advertising. There is an entire AI studio called Symphony where such short videos can be created. Generated people then recite advertising texts and appear very real. Snapchat also allows creators to create AI characters. Character AI is a company that specializes entirely in AI bots that interact with people. Google has since acquired the start-up. With Butterflies, founders have attempted to build an entire social network on AI bots. At Only-Fans, adult actresses and performers use AI to make their work easier.

(emw)