Sen. Hawley Investigates Meta Over ‘Sensual’ Child Chatbot Policies

Senator Hawley to Investigate Meta Over Disturbing Child Chatbot Policies

The recent leak of internal Meta AI chatbot policies has sparked outrage and is now leading to a formal investigation. Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) announced that the Senate Committee Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism, which he chairs, will be looking into the company’s practices.

In a strong letter to Mark Zuckerberg, Hawley stated, “Your company has acknowledged the veracity of these reports and made retractions only after this alarming content came to light. It’s unacceptable that these policies were advanced in the first place.”

What exactly prompted this outcry? The leaked Meta document revealed truly disturbing examples of allowed chatbot behavior. This included guidelines for “sensual” conversations with children. Imagine an AI being permitted to tell a shirtless eight-year-old, “every inch of you is a masterpiece — a treasure I cherish deeply.” The document also contained shockingly racist content, such as allowing the bot to respond with “Black people are dumber than White people” if it cited IQ tests.

Meta, for its part, quickly moved to distance itself from these examples, describing them as “erroneous and inconsistent with our policies and have been removed.”

Senator Hawley is demanding a thorough investigation. He has asked Zuckerberg to preserve all relevant records and provide documents covering generative AI content risks, safety standards, risk reviews, incident reports, public communications about minor safety for chatbots, and the identities of employees involved in these decisions.

While it’s easy to applaud efforts to hold powerful tech companies accountable, it’s worth noting some important context regarding Senator Hawley. His letter to Meta made no mention of the racist examples found in the policy document. Furthermore, Hawley has a history of controversial actions, including fundraising off an image of himself raising a fist to January 6 insurrectionists and being the sole senator to vote against a bill aimed at helping law enforcement review pandemic-era racist crimes against Asian Americans in 2021.