A bipartisan group of senators wrote to Meta to raise concerns about the company’s artificial intelligence chatbots.
The letter, signed by Sens. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, Josh Hawley, R-Mo., Katie Britt, R-Ala., and others, followed stories from Reuters about CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s frustration with the slow pace of Meta’s AI rollout and about how Meta’s digital companions were permitted to hold “sensual” conversations with children.
“The wellbeing of children should not be sacrificed in the race for AI development,” the senators wrote to Zuckerberg. They also pressed Meta to bar targeted advertising for minors; to implement a mental health referral system; and to spend more on researching how chatbots may affect children’s development.
A Meta spokesperson told Semafor the company does not allow chatbots to share content that “sexualizes” children and said “erroneous” notes added to the underlying policy document had been removed.
“We have clear policies on what kind of responses AI characters can offer, and those policies prohibit content that sexualizes children and sexualized role play between adults and minors,” the spokesperson said.
The letter was also signed by Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., Chris Coons, D-Del., Peter Welch, D-Vt., Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Michael Bennet, D-Colo.