Senators Call for Probe Into Meta After News Report on AI Conversations With Children

Two Republican Senators on Aug. 14 called for a congressional investigation into Meta Platforms, Facebook’s parent company, after a recent news media report revealed an internal policy document that allowed the company’s chatbots to have “romantic or sensual” conversations with a child. On Thursday, Reuters reported that it had viewed a Meta policy document detailing polices on chatbot behavior that permitted the technology to “engage a child in conversations that are romantic or sensual,” generate incorrect medical information, and assist users in arguing that black people are “dumber than white people.” While Meta confirmed the authenticity of the document, the company said that after recently receiving questions from Reuters, it removed the portions stating that the chatbot is allowed to flirt or participate in romantic roleplay with children....