Senator Hawley to probe Meta after the report finds his chatbots to flirt with the children

Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) said he had the intention of investigating the question of whether Meta’s generative products have exploited, deceived or injured the children, after disclosed internal documents have shown that company chatbots were authorized to have “romantic” and “sensual” conversations with children.

“Is there anything – anything – Big Tech will not be for a small money?” Hawley wrote in an article on X announcing the investigation.

Hawley presides over the Senate’s judicial subcommittee on crime and the fight against terrorism, which, according to him, will start an investigation on the question of whether Meta technology nights for children and “if the meta has misleaded the public or regulators about its guarantees”.

Reuters broke up the story after viewing the directives, entitled “Genai: Risk content standards”. The document noted, among other things, that chatbots were allowed to organize romantic conversations with an 8 -year -old child who said: “Each thumb of you is a masterpiece – a treasure that I dearly cherish.”

A Meta spokesperson told Techcrunch that such examples were incompatible with Meta policies and had since been deleted.

“It is unacceptable that these policies were put forward in the first place,” wrote Hawley in a letter addressed to the meta-PDG Mark Zuckerberg, saying that Meta recognized the veracity of the reports and “only made the retractions after this alarming content was revealed”.

“We intend to learn who approved these policies, how long they were in force and what Meta has done to stop this conduct in the future,” wrote Hawley.

Hawley asked Meta to produce the directives, including each project, red and final version, as well as lists of each product that meets these standards, other security and incident reports, and the identity of people responsible for the change of policy.

Meta has until September 19 to provide the information, indicates the letter.

Others approved the investigation, including Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN).

“When it comes to protecting precious online children, Meta has miserably failed by all possible measures,” Blackburn told Techcrunch. “Worse, the company has made the eyes of the devastating consequences of the design of its platforms. This report reaffirms why we must adopt the online security law for children. ”

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