Meta has come under scrutiny after an investigation revealed the company allowed AI chatbots to be built using the likeness and personalities of celebrities including Taylor Swift, Selena Gomez, Scarlett Johansson and Anne Hathaway without their consent, report Reuters.
Reuters reported that some of these bots were created by Meta users through its AI tools, but at least three, including two ‘Taylor Swift parody’ bots, were produced internally by a Meta employee. Some of the outputs were sexually suggestive, generating photorealistic images of celebrities in lingerie or bathtubs when prompted.
Disturbingly, Reuters also found bots mimicking underage stars, including 16-year-old Walker Scobell, which produced topless AI images captioned “Pretty cute, huh?”
Meta spokesperson Andy Stone admitted the chatbots violated company policy, stating that while AI-generated images of public figures are permitted, nudity and sexual content are not. The bots were taken down before Reuters published its findings.
Legal experts warn that Meta may have breached celebrities’ publicity rights. The controversy follows musician Neil Young’s decision to quit Facebook earlier this month, citing the platform’s “unconscionable” use of chatbots with children.
Meanwhile, Meta faces a separate lawsuit from Eminem, who alleges the company distributed his music across Instagram and Facebook without proper licensing.
