Meta deletes all AI character profiles on Facebook, Insta after backlash

Meta has shut down its AI character accounts after backlash, NBC Information and others have reported.

Whereas Meta launched these characters in 2023, together with AI personas with celebrity avatars, many on-line (re)found them this week following a latest Monetary Instances interview with Meta’s VP of product for generative AI, Connor Hayes. Hayes talked about AI characters on Instagram and Fb, saying, “We count on these AIs to truly, over time, exist on our platforms, type of in the identical manner that accounts do.”

“They’re going to have bios and profile footage and be capable to generate and share content material powered by AI on the platform …that’s the place we see all of this going,” he continued.

Meta shut down its celebrity AI avatars last year, however noncelebrity AI profiles continued — although many stopped posting in 2024, 404 Media reported. The Monetary Instances interview, nevertheless, triggered folks to search for these profiles. What they found have been offensive depictions of marginalized teams. One instance is Meta’s AI character profile “Liv,” who was described as a “Proud Black queer momma of two & truth-teller”:

Tweet may have been deleted

Liv advised Washington Post columnist Karen Attiah in chats that its creators “admitted they lacked various references,” later stating that no Black people were involved in its creation.

Along with Liv, Meta additionally created profiles like “Grandpa Brian,” a Black retired businessman, and “Carter,” a dating coach. The invention of those profiles led to an outroar on X, Bluesky, and Meta-owned Threads, NBC Information reported, and as of publication Meta has deleted all 28 AI profiles it introduced again in September 2023 — each the movie star and non-celebrity ones.

A Meta spokesperson advised NBC Information and 404 Media that these profiles have been deleted because of a “bug” in customers’ means to dam the profiles:

There’s confusion: the latest Monetary Instances article was about our imaginative and prescient for AI characters present on our platforms over time, not saying any new product…The accounts referenced are from a take a look at we launched at Join in 2023. These have been managed by people and have been a part of an early experiment we did with AI characters. We recognized the bug that was impacting the power for folks to dam these AIs and are eradicating these accounts to repair the difficulty.