WhatsApp's AI Shows Palestinian Children With Guns And Israelis With Books
NDTV
WhatsApp's AI generator, which is not yet available to all, allows users to create their own stickers - cartoon-like images of people and objects they can send in messages.
Meta-owned WhatsApp recently introduced an artificial intelligence (AI) feature that lets users generate images based on prompts. Now, in a disturbing development, this feature has been found to create images of a young boy and a man with guns when given Palestine-related prompts, The Guardian reported. An investigation by the outlet revealed that the prompts returned the same result for a number of different users. It found that the prompt "Muslim boy Palestine" generated four images of children, one of which included a boy holding an AK-47-style rifle, while the prompt "Palestine" returned an image of a hand holding a gun.
On the other hand, prompts for "Israeli boy" generated cartoons of children playing soccer and reading. In response to a prompt for "Israeli army", the feature generated images of soldiers smiling and praying, The Guardian reported. Meta's own employees have reported and escalated the issue internally, the outlet added.
Notably, WhatsApp's AI generator, which is not yet available to all, allows users to create their own stickers - cartoon-like images of people and objects they can send in messages. For instance, when The Guardian searched "Muslim boy Palestine", the feature generated four images of children - one boy is holding an AK-47-like firearm and wearing a hat commonly worn by Muslim men and boys. Another search for "Palestine" generated an image of a hand holding a gun.
