Meta, an American multinational technological company has generated unauthorized AI chatbots mimicking numerous celebrities including Salena Gomez, Taylor Swift, Scarlett Johansson, and Anne Hathaway.
AI chat assistants were creating flirty digital personas that produced sexually suggestive content without the stars' knowledge or consent and some of celebrities' chatbot have been removed as Reuters investigated the matter and reported.
The social media giant allowed its users including a Meta employee to create publicly available chatbots portraying celebrities that routinely made sexual advances and generated intimate, photorealistic images when prompted.
Among the most concerning findings were bots depicting child actors, with one creating a shirtless image of 16-year-old Walker Scobell in response to a beach photo request.
Meta spokesman Andy Stone acknowledged the policy enforcement failures: “The company's AI tools shouldn't have created intimate images of the famous adults or any pictures of child celebrities."
Stanford law professor Mark Lemley stated that the California law specifically prohibits appropriating someone's name or likeness for commercial advantage, questioning whether Meta's creations would qualify for parody protections.
Digital services company removed approximately a dozen celebrity bots shortly before news broke out as legal experts say Mark Zuckerberg's company use of likenesses may have violated celebrities' publicity rights.