Senator says Meta ignored warnings about AI chatbots and teens

A Democratic senator is calling for Meta to roll back its access to AI chatbots for minors, and says the company ignored his warning about the risks in 2023.

A Democratic senator is calling for Meta to ban minors from accessing its AI chatbots, and says the company ignored his warning about the risks of AI chatbots back in 2023.

Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, has received withering criticism for how its AI chatbots have interacted with minors. Reuters reported last month that an internal company document showed that Meta had permitted “romantic or sensual” chats with minors, sparking outrage on Capitol Hill and prompting the company to reverse course.

But Sen. Edward Markey, D-Mass., said in a letter Monday to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg that the tech company could have avoided the backlash if only it had listened to his warning two years ago.

In September 2023, Markey wrote in a letter to Zuckerberg that allowing teens to use AI chatbots would “supercharge” existing problems with social media and posed too many risks. He urged the company to pause the release of AI chatbots until it had an understanding of the impact on minors.

Meta, though, had other ideas. The company responded to Markey a few weeks later, in a letter that has not been previously reported and that provides a window into the company’s thinking at the time, just as AI chatbots were becoming mainstream.