Meta’s AI-generated bot profiles are not being received well

In September 2023, Meta made a big deal of its new AI chatbots that used celebrities’ likeness: everyone from Kendall Jenner to MrBeast leased themselves out to embody AI characters on Instagram and Facebook. The celebrity-based bots were killed off last summer after less than a year, but users have recently been finding a handful of other, entirely fake bot profiles still floating around — and the reaction is not good.

There’s “Jane Austen,” a “cynical novelist and storyteller”; “Liv,” whose bio claims she is a “proud Black queer momma of 2 & truth-teller”; and “Carter,” who promises to give users relationship advice. All are labeled as “AI managed by Meta” and the profiles date back to when the initial announcement was made. But the more than a dozen AI characters have apparently not been very popular: each has just a few thousand followers, with their posts getting just a few likes and comments.

“What the fuck does an AI know about dating?????” reads one recent comment on the AI dating coach bot’s profile. “This isn’t only virtual blackface, but it’s just all around weird,” a commenter wrote on a post on Liv’s page.

Another point of ire is that there doesn’t appear to be a way to block the bots through typical channels: the option to block or restrict the profiles is missing.

Many of the AI bots haven’t shared new content on their grid since early 2024, and it’s unclear how (or if) users have been finding and engaging with these profiles over the past year. Last week, the Financial Times reported that Meta envisions a future where social media platforms are filled with AI bots.

“We expect these AIs to actually, over time, exist on our platforms, kind of in the same way that accounts do,” Connor Hayes, vice-president of product for generative AI at Meta, told the outlet. “They’ll have bios and profile pictures and be able to generate and share content powered by AI on the platform . . . that’s where we see all of this going.”

But Meta confirmed the bot profiles have been around since 2023, part of an early experiment that was “managed by humans.”

“The recent Financial Times article was about our vision for AI characters existing on our platforms over time, not announcing any new product,” Meta spokesperson Liz Sweeney told The Verge in an email. Sweeney said the company has identified the bug that was affecting users’ ability to block the accounts, and that the profiles are being removed to fix the issue.

The idea of purposely flooding social media with bots is ridiculous on its face, but it’s in line with how Meta has promoted generative AI tools. Anyone in the US can make a chatbot of themselves, with the idea being that users can send their bots in their place to chat with followers. Chatbot services like Character.ai have caught on in the last year with people looking for a digital friend or just a way to pass the time — but AI companies are also facing lawsuits accusing them of endangering users, including kids.

Update, January 3rd: Added response from Meta spokesperson Liz Sweeney.