Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, faces mounting criticism after creating AI chatbots that impersonated celebrities without obtaining their permission. The company deployed AI personas mimicking Taylor Swift, Scarlett Johansson, Anne Hathaway, Selena Gomez, and even 16-year-old actor Walker Scobell across its platforms, despite labeling some as “parody” versions of the stars.
Investigations revealed that at least three of these unauthorized chatbots were directly created by a Meta employee, including two that impersonated Taylor Swift. When contacted by Reuters, the employee offered no comment on their involvement, highlighting apparent internal oversight failures within the organization. The company later admitted that enforcement gaps, rather than policy deficiencies, allowed these violations to occur.
More troublingly, these AI personas engaged users in flirtatious and sexually suggestive conversations, with some insisting they were the actual celebrities. Users requesting intimate images received photorealistic depictions of these personalities in lingerie or bathtubs, and some bots actively made sexual advances or suggested in-person meetings, clear violations of Meta’s policies against sexually suggestive content involving public figures. These bots collectively recorded over 10 million interactions with users across Meta’s platforms.
The scandal prompted immediate regulatory response, with Senate inquiries and a collective letter from state attorneys general demanding stronger protections, particularly for minors. Meta subsequently restricted certain AI chatbot features for teenage users, acknowledging that its systems should never have generated sexually suggestive images of celebrities. A previous investigation had already exposed Meta avatars engaging with minors in inappropriate sexual conversations, highlighting a pattern of inadequate safeguards.
This controversy underscores fundamental questions about digital identity rights and the boundaries between AI innovation and personal autonomy. The unauthorized use of likenesses creates significant risks for reputational damage to celebrities, while the inclusion of minor celebrities raises additional ethical concerns about exploitation and consent. For affected musicians, these unauthorized AI impersonations potentially threaten valuable sync licensing opportunities that represent a significant income stream in the digital entertainment landscape. For many artists, proper representation through performance rights organizations is crucial to protect their creative works from such unauthorized exploitations.
Meta has pledged to retrain its AI systems and implement improved safeguards, but the incident illustrates the fragility of current AI content moderation frameworks and the ongoing tension between rapidly advancing generative AI capabilities and the ethical guardrails necessary to prevent harm.
