So-called “thirst traps” posted by attention-hungry real people on social media have lately seen an influx of digital competition: artificial intelligence.
Startups marketing sexually available virtual escorts to lonely men have begun to emerge on social media.
The ads promise “AI girlfriends” whose underlying “machine learning” architecture learns user preferences.
Sites like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok are concerned, as these new ads have shown an amazing ability to overcome existing content moderation hurdles to block such overtly sexual content.
Worse still, in certain ads, memes incorporating familiar children’s TV characters, from Cookie Monster to SpongeBob, are redistributed in questionable cases of “fair use” to promote AI sex apps and their ability to generate “NSFW photos”.
Suspicious ads from AI sex apps are flooding Instagram, Facebook and TikTok. Certain ads incorporate memes of well-known children’s television characters, from Cookie Monster to SpongeBob, in questionable cases of “fair use” to promote their “NSFW photos.”
Social media giant Meta has created an ad library that allows users, the public, regulators and academics to keep track of the ads posted on its platforms, including Instagram and Facebook. Above, one of the bold new AI sexbot ads posted on the Meta Ad Library
Other ads feature digitally or potentially AI-generated girls whose indeterminate age could be read as teenagers or younger.
For its part, Meta has claimed it has control over the ads, which appear to violate its policies.
The ads promise ‘AI girlfriends’ whose underlying ‘machine learning’ architecture learns user preferences, creating increasingly more simulated intimacy the longer the real person on the other end stays with their fake love interest.
As the company said in a statement to NBC NewsMeta’s position is that its ban on adult content does not exempt AI-generated content.
“Our policies prohibit ads with adult content that is overly suggestive or sexually provocative, whether AI-generated or not,” according to a human spokesperson for Meta.
“Our policies and compliance are designed to adapt in this highly contentious space, and we are actively monitoring any new trends in AI-generated content.”
Meta also told the news station that it is reviewing the version of its policies accessible to the public and advertisers, to make sure its language is clear enough.
For years, and in some cases more than a decade, social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram and TikTok have been at odds with sex workers, sex ed advocates and artists who have complained about privacy policies. draconian and prudish moderation.
Many of these advocates are alarmed by the tacit consent of these platforms or the lenient treatment of paid ads by these app developers.
“Sex workers are not allowed to make money off of their image,” said Carolina Are, a researcher at Northumbria University’s Center for Digital Citizens, “but some tech peer who is creating a similar AI image can.” .
One adult toy maker, Unbound CEO Polly Rodriguez, told NBC News that her company has often faced daunting obstacles in advertising with Meta.
He expressed confusion and annoyance at the ability of these AI chatbot ads to somehow evade content moderation, hinting that the issues suggest evidence of inconsistent enforcement and bias.
“They don’t address the underlying question: why are these ads running?” Rodriguez said.
