Meta’s Platforms Inundated with Ads for AI-Generated, NSFW Chatbots
Thousands of Ads Promoting Sexually Explicit Content
According to Meta’s online ad library, the company is currently hosting a plethora of advertisements for AI-generated, NSFW companion or “girlfriend” apps across its platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger. These ads promote chatbots that offer sexually explicit images and text, often using NSFW chat samples and AI-generated images of partially clothed, unrealistically proportioned, simulated women.
Lifelike and Stereotypically Pornographic Virtual Women
The virtual women featured in the ads reviewed by WIRED are often lifelike, albeit somewhat uncanny, young, and conform to stereotypical pornographic standards. Prospective customers are encouraged to engage in role-play with an AI “stepmom,” interact with a computer-generated teen wearing a hijab, or chat with avatars claiming to ”get you off in one minute.”
Ads Thriving Despite Meta’s Policies Against Adult Content
These ads appear to be flourishing on Meta’s platforms, despite the company’s ad policies explicitly prohibiting “adult content,” which includes “depictions of people in explicit or suggestive positions, or activities that are overly suggestive or sexually provocative.”
New Front in the Debate Over AI and Conventional Labor
The proliferation of these chatbot ads has created a new aspect in the ongoing discussions about the conflict between AI and traditional labor. Some human sex workers argue that Meta is allowing chatbots to multiply while unfairly restricting their older profession from its platforms by over-enforcing rules related to adult content.
“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,” says Gemma Rose, director of the ”.
Meta has limited some of Rose’s posts from being shown to non-followers, as evidenced by screenshots seen by WIRED. Her personal Instagram account and one for her organization have previously been suspended for violating Meta policies.
“Not that I agree with a lot of the community guidelines and rules and regulations, but these [ads] blatantly go against their own policies,” says Rose of the sexual chatbots promoted on Meta platforms. “And yet we’re not allowed to be uncensored on the internet or just exist and make a living.”
Surveying the Extent of Chatbot Ads on Meta Platforms
WIRED conducted a survey of chatbot ads using Meta’s ad library, a transparency tool that allows users to see all the ads currently running across its platforms, all ads shown in the EU in the past year, and past ads from the past seven years related to elections, politics, or social issues. The searches revealed that at least 29,000 ads had been published on Meta platforms for explicit AI “girlfriends,” with most using suggestive, sex-related messaging. Additionally, there were at least 19,000 ads using the term “NSFW” and 14,000 offering “NSFW AI.”
Meta’s Response to the Ads
When WIRED contacted Meta last week, approximately 2,700 ads were active. A few days later, Meta spokesperson Ryan Daniels stated that the company prohibits ads containing adult content and was reviewing the ads and removing those that violated its policies. “When we identify violating ads we work quickly to remove them, as we’re doing here,” he said. “We continue to improve our systems, including how we detect ads and behavior that go against our policies.”
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