Facebook and Instagram reportedly host thousands of explicit ads for AI-generated companions and “girlfriend” apps – and sex workers are accusing Meta of double standards when it comes to policing smut.
The online chatbots in the ads provide users with AI-generated imagery of realistic, partially clothed and stereotypically pornographic women, including one promising to “get you off in one minute,” Wired reported.
Meta users are offered to role-play with an AI “stepmom” and a computer-generated teen in a hijab, among other characters.
Facebook and Instagram are flooded with ads for AI-generated companions and “girlfriend” apps, featuring explicit imagery and role-play scenarios with AI characters. Meta
Some human sex workers raised concerns over Meta favoring the AI-powered sex services and letting them multiply while barring human sex work on Facebook and Instagram as “adult content,” according to Wired.
“As a sex worker, if I put anything like ‘I will do anything for you, I will make you come in a minute’ I would be deleted in an instant,” Gemma Rose, director of a UK-based sex-worker rights organization, told the publication.
At least 29,000 ads for explicit AI “girlfriends” have been published across Meta’s social media platforms despite the company’s advertising policies prohibiting “depictions of people in explicit or suggestive positions, or activities that are overly suggestive or sexually provocative.”
While Meta prohibits showcasing nudity and selling sex, including sexting, Rose and other sex workers accused the platform of overlooking “NSFW”, not-safe-for-work experiences currently dominating the AI companion ads.
Meta spokesperson Ryan Daniels said the company prohibits ads containing adult content and is actively reviewing and removing any ads that violate its policies.
“When we identify violating ads we work quickly to remove them, as we’re doing here,” he told Wired. “We continue to improve our systems, including how we detect ads and behavior that go against our policies.”
Nevertheless, some 1,500 ads for “AI girlfriend” – 190 containing “NSFW” – were live across Meta’s social media platforms in the US as of April 30, according to Meta’s ad library.
The overwhelming number of ads offer to undress female characters in real-time, customizing what clothes they wear and to what extent they should be removed.
Two months ago, Meta promised to expand support for teens trapped in financial “sextortion” scams after the social media giant was accused of allowing criminals to trick youngsters into sharing explicit pictures and then blackmail them unless they pay.
In 2024, the AI girlfriend industry is predicted to become the next $1B business.
Some TikTok users already admit to flirting with ChatGPT’s NSFW-like alter ego with a macho voice.
