Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg blocked curbs on sex-talking chatbots for minors, court filing alleges

We “pushed hard for parental controls to turn GenAI off – but GenAI leadership pushed back stating Mark decision,” one Meta employee wrote in that exchange.

Meta Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg approved allowing minors to access AI chatbot companions that safety ‍staffers warned were capable of sexual interactions, according to internal Meta documents filed in a New Mexico state court case and made public Monday.

The ​lawsuit, brought by the state’s attorney general, Raul Torrez, and scheduled for trial next month, alleges ‌that Meta “failed to stem the tide of damaging sexual material and sexual propositions delivered to children” on ​Facebook and Instagram.

The filing on Monday included internal Meta employee emails and messages obtained by the New Mexico Attorney General’s Office through legal discovery. The state alleges they show that “Meta, driven by Zuckerberg, rejected the recommendations of its integrity staff and declined to impose reasonable guardrails to prevent children from being subject to sexually exploitative conversations with its AI chatbots,” the attorney general said in the filing.

In the communications, some of Meta’s safety staff expressed objections that the company was building chatbots geared for companionship, including sexual and romantic interactions with users. The artificial intelligence chatbots were released in early 2024. The documents cited in ​the state’s filing Monday don’t include messages or memos authored by Zuckerberg.

Meta spokesman Andy Stone on Monday said ⁠the state’s portrayal was inaccurate and relied on selective information: “This is yet another example of the New Mexico Attorney General cherry-picking documents to paint a flawed and inaccurate picture.”

Messages in the filing showed safety staff had special concern about the bots being used for romantic scenarios between adults and minors under the age ​of 18, referred to as “U18s.”