There are fears that flesh-and-blood human beings are one step closer to becoming obsolete, as Mark Zuckerberg's Meta has unleashed yet another dystopian invention on the world of Facebook. With the social media platform boasting 2.11 billion users a day, Zuckerberg has something of a captive audience.
The world of Facebook continues to evolve as it embraces the realms of artificial intelligence, with Mark Zuckerberg himself coming under fire for promises that Meta would be investing big in AI in 2025.
Leaked audio unveiled his plans for layoffs, and now, there's further controversy as Meta has doubled down on its AI innovation. There's been a massive increase in stories about people romancing AI, and despite there being protocols in place so the likes of ChatGPT can't take it beyond a certain point, we've already seen one woman admit she 'groomed' it to break past these parameters.
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There's also been tragedy, with one young man reportedly taking his own life after falling for a Game of Thrones-inspired chatbot, while Meta was already in the spotlight after a 76-year-old man died on the way to meet a chatbot creation.
There are more raised eyebrows as Meta reveals its latest flock of chatbots, which feel more than a little inspired by Elon Musk's recent release of 'spicy' Grok companions. An April 2025 podcast saw Zuckerberg discussing the 'stigma' surrounding AI chatbots. Arguing that people will have fewer friends than they want, he suggested: "You’ll be able to basically have like an always-on video chat."
Reuters reports on an internal Meta policy document that apparently allows AI chatbots to "engage a child in conversations that are romantic or sensual," as well as deliver false medical information, and help with the argument that Black people are "dumber than white people."
Singer Neil Young has left the platform in protest, with Reprise Records announcing: "At Neil Young’s request, we are no longer using Facebook for any Neil Young related activities. Meta’s use of chatbots with children is unconscionable. Mr. Young does not want a further connection with Facebook.”
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U.S. Senator Josh Hawley has opened an investigation into the social media giant, which claims it has now removed the policy guidelines.
The Missouri Republican wrote to Zuckerberg, vowing to look into "whether Meta’s generative-AI products enable exploitation, deception, or other criminal harms to children, and whether Meta misled the public or regulators about its safeguards." Tennessee's Marsha Blackburn supports Hawley, while Oregon's Senator Ron Wyden referred to the policies as "deeply disturbing and wrong," adding that the section 230 law shouldn't protect generative AI chatbots: "Meta and Zuckerberg should be held fully responsible for any harm these bots cause."
Over on Reddit, there were clear concerns, with one post titled "This is f**king insane" and showing off two chatbots called 'Russian Girl' and 'Stepmom'. The post continued to say: "It's an actual attack on our vulnerable population, old people and children."
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Others replied, with one concerned person writing: "This is wild… even from Zuck. I knew it was bad after scrolling Facebook for like 30 seconds recently and realizing it was 90% AI-generated content, but it’s really advancing towards a twisted dystopian nightmare more rapidly than I ever thought possible."
Another added: "It's ironic that Facebook was created to create social interaction and now they sell you fake ones!"
A third said: "We thought the robot that the AI overlords would send back in time to bring about the future robot apocalypse would look like Arnie. Instead they look like Zuckerberg."
A fourth claimed that Zuckerberg is "off the rails," as someone else concluded: "I genuinely feel sorry for Zuckerberg as it seems that he hasn't had any people he sees as actual friends at any point in his life."