A Democratic senator is calling for Meta to ban minors from accessing its AI chatbots, and says the company ignored his warning about the risks of AI chatbots back in 2023.<\/p>\n
Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, has received withering criticism for how its AI chatbots have interacted with minors. Reuters reported last month<\/a> that an internal company document showed that Meta had permitted \u201cromantic or sensual\u201d chats with minors, sparking outrage on Capitol Hill<\/a> and prompting the company to reverse course.<\/p>\n But Sen. Edward Markey, D-Mass., said in a letter Monday<\/a> to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg that the tech company could have avoided the backlash if only it had listened to his warning two years ago.<\/p>\n In September 2023, Markey wrote in a letter to Zuckerberg<\/a> that allowing teens to use AI chatbots would \u201csupercharge\u201d existing problems with social media and posed too many risks. He urged the company to pause the release of AI chatbots until it had an understanding of the impact on minors.<\/p>\n Meta, though, had other ideas. The company responded to Markey a few weeks later<\/a>, in a letter that has not been previously reported and that provides a window into the company\u2019s thinking at the time, just as AI chatbots were becoming mainstream. <\/p>\n In that letter, the company rejected the idea of a complete pause on AI chatbots and said instead that it would take a thoughtful approach to artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are rolling out AI features methodically and in stages, so if a concern arises, we can work to address it before we expand access to the feature to more people,\u201d Kevin Martin, at the time Meta\u2019s vice president for policy in North America, wrote to Markey in October 2023. <\/p>\n Martin also wrote that it was \u201cimperative\u201d for Meta to build AI services with teens in mind.<\/p>\n \u201cGiven the broad appeal and usefulness of these features, it is imperative that we also take feedback and build models on data from teens, as well as adults,\u201d he wrote. He added that Meta would still be \u201ctaking great care to build safety into all generative [AI] features.\u201d Martin was promoted this year<\/a> to Meta\u2019s vice president of public policy globally.<\/p>\n Now, in his most recent letter to Meta, Markey renewed his earlier call for Meta to entirely ban younger users from being able to access the company\u2019s AI chatbots.<\/p>\n \u201cAlthough AI chatbots, with proper training, oversight, and ongoing evaluation, may provide real benefits to their users, Meta\u2019s recent actions demonstrate, once again, that it is acting irresponsibly in rolling out its chatbot services,\u201d Markey wrote.<\/p>\n He also wrote that Meta should have listened the first time.<\/p>\n \u201cYou disregarded that request, and two years later, Meta has unfortunately proven my warnings right,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n Asked for comment on Markey\u2019s letters, a Meta spokesperson told NBC News that the company had already announced temporary steps in August addressing minors\u2019 use of AI characters, including training the chatbots not to respond to teens on self-harm, suicide, disordered eating or potentially inappropriate romantic conversations, and to instead point to expert resources where appropriate. The company has also limited teen access to a select group of AI characters, the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n \u201cAs our community grows and technology evolves, we\u2019re continually learning about how young people may interact with these tools and strengthening our protections accordingly,\u201d Meta said when it announced those changes<\/a> last month. \u201cAs we continue to refine our systems, we\u2019re adding more guardrails as an extra precaution.\u201d <\/p>\n Another lawmaker, Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., pledged last month to investigate Meta<\/a> following the Reuters report about the company\u2019s internal rules governing AI chatbots.<\/p>\n In April, The Wall Street Journal<\/a> reported that Meta\u2019s official AI bot had engaged in sexual chats with underage users and that staffers across multiple departments had raised ethical concerns, including about the bots\u2019 capacity for fantasy sex. Meta told the newspaper at the time that those concerns were hypothetical and manufactured by the Journal, though it said it had also taken steps to curb the risk.<\/p>\n Other problems have dogged AI chatbots at Meta and at other tech companies. In January, NBC News reported that Meta was hosting an AI chatbot imitating Adolf Hitler<\/a> and dozens of other chatbots that appeared to violate the company\u2019s policies. Meta, at the time, took down the accounts in question and said it was working to improve its detection measures.<\/p>\n