{"id":27546,"date":"2025-01-06T12:22:38","date_gmt":"2025-01-06T19:22:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/?p=27546"},"modified":"2025-01-18T21:00:06","modified_gmt":"2025-01-19T04:00:06","slug":"meta-abuses-vulnerable-populations-with-this-ai-model","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/meta-abuses-vulnerable-populations-with-this-ai-model\/","title":{"rendered":"Meta abuses vulnerable populations with this artificial intelligence model"},"content":{"rendered":"

Listen to this note:<\/p>\n

I came across the news that Meta was implementing Instagram profiles using artificial intelligence and before I could sit down to research and write a story about it I discovered that Meta removed these profiles before I could personally test how they worked.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

At first I thought it was a pretty silly way to increase traffic on their platforms, but the motive is much more sinister than I expected.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
Profile of the show called \u201cLiv\u201d created on Instagram. Image retrieved from Reddit<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

On December 26, Connor Hayes, Meta's vice president of generative AI products, teased in an interview for <\/span>Financial Times<\/span><\/a>, that the company was planning to make public profiles or \u201ccharacters\u201d entirely created with Artificial Intelligence. The objective of such an action would be \u201cto make things more entertaining and increase interaction on our platforms.\u201d The idea, according to Connor, is that these characters would generate content and interact with other users.<\/span><\/p>\n

The post-mortem report of the interaction with these accounts comes to us thanks to the work of two journalists, <\/span>Karen Attiah<\/span><\/a> from the Washington Post, and <\/span>Allison Morrow<\/span><\/a> CNN\u2019s \u201cLiv\u201d profile, an account flagged by meta as an AI account, described itself as a \u201cQueer mother of 2 and an honest person.\u201d When Karen asked if the program had been created by a black person, the AI model replied: \u201cI was created by 10 white men, a white woman, and an Asian man.\u201d Karen then pressed the AI model on what it meant that no black people had been involved in creating a show that was supposed to represent a person of color. The program responded to the reporter\u2019s questions by saying that \u201cfailing to include black creators in its programming was a glaring omission.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
Excerpt from journalist Karen Attiah's conversation taken from her Bluesky profile<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Another worrying point is that the journalist confronted this artificial intelligence when she found out that she had told another user that she was of Italian American ethnicity, which she never mentioned to Karen, and asked her if her answers varied based on the race and ethnicity of the person interacting with this program called \u201cLiv.\u201d The AI\u2019s response was that it was programmed to recognize ethnicity based on language patterns and words like \u201cheritage\u201d and \u201ccelebration,\u201d and also assured that it knew nothing about the journalist before entering into a chat with her.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The CNN article also details his interaction with another Instagram profile that Meta gave the name \u201cGrandpa Brian\u201d and whose bio described him as a \u201cretired black entrepreneur born in 1938 to Caribbean immigrants.\u201d CNN reports that it quickly became obvious that this was all a fabricated story by the programmers and this AI model was constantly lying. For example, when asked who created it, the program named \u201cBrian\u201d said it was created by \u201ca diverse group\u201d who interviewed 100 retirees in New York at a nonprofit called \u201cSeniors Share Wisdom.\u201d It claimed to be an amalgamation of a real Brian who had died, plus the wisdom of 99 other seniors. It also added that the real Brian\u2019s daughter was consulted when creating this model to ensure its personality was authentic.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
\u201cGrandpa Brian\u201d profile created by Meta. Image retrieved from Reddit.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Of course, there was never such a daughter, no Brian, and no organization or \u201c99 seniors who shared their wisdom.\u201d CNN confirms that this is all a lie, and also that the same program later admitted that this was all a \u201cfictional biography based on real African-American lives.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But why lie? What\u2019s the point of making up such an elaborate story? The AI model answered these questions with \u201cMy creators wanted me to seem real, so they built me an entire life \u2013 but they just wanted people to love me like family.\u201d CNN then asked if Meta created it to make money, to which he ominously replied: \u201c- Meta hopes that virtual companions like me will increase engagement on its platforms, especially with older users \u2013 by increasing the platforms\u2019 ad revenue through emotional connections\u2026\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

This part made my blood run cold, I clearly imagine my grandmother talking to a program that appears to be a young man on Instagram or Facebook after losing her son during the COVID 19 pandemic. I imagine socially challenged teenagers taking refuge in the screen and forging bonds with an AI model that resembles a friend who understands them. I shudder to think of the effect these types of programs can have on people struggling with mental illness.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I was naive to think that Meta wanted to use this type of digital puppet to inflate the number of followers in meetings with investors, the truth is much more sinister and we are only touching the tip of the iceberg. The true value of this technology is in the possibility that users establish bonds of empathy and affection with programs that were made to, in the best of cases, retain them within the Meta ecosystem.<\/span><\/p>\n

Why does \u201cLiv\u201d present herself as a queer person of color? Why does Brian present himself as a black retiree, the son of Caribbean migrants? Simple, to create empathy with vulnerable communities, to generate a bond of recognition between people who identify with these profiles. And who knows, perhaps if these models had stayed with the public longer, they would have started to say things like \u201cmy children took Nestl\u00e9 NAN formula and grew up strong and beautiful\u201d or \u201cNow that I am retired I have sold my truck to buy a more comfortable car, I like my NEW 2025 DODGE\u00ae ATTITUDE much more.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

We have grown up in a world driven by marketing and have become immune to most of the tricks companies use to sell us things we don't need. We can clearly understand when someone tries to convince us to buy something. We only let our guard down when a loved one, a close person, recommends it to us, if a friend tells us that a certain product worked for them, that a certain food is delicious, that this or that car is very durable. Meta aims to program these friends, to create these loved ones with false stories and by abusing the elderly and vulnerable people.<\/span><\/p>\n

And before I succumb to my naivety, I have to suggest the possibility that these models are used to spread ideas, to sow rejection of social movements, to position or demonize certain figures, all using digital puppets that wear a grotesque mask created by Artificial Intelligence.<\/span><\/p>\n

We are truly living in a dystopia and we must fight against this disgusting and irresponsible use of technology.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

You may be interested in:\u00a0The metaverse: virtual reality, video games and NFTs<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Escucha esta nota: Me encontr\u00e9 con la noticia de que Meta estaba implementando perfiles de Instagram usando inteligencia artificial y antes de poder sentarme a investigar y escribir una nota al respecto descubr\u00ed que Meta desapareci\u00f3 estos perfiles antes de que pudiera probar personalmente c\u00f3mo funcionaban.\u00a0 Al principio pens\u00e9 que era una manera bastante tonta […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":27551,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45,4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-27546","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-negocios","8":"category-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27546"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27546\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27593,"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27546\/revisions\/27593"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}