Meta deletes AI character profiles after backlash, racism accusations

Meta has shut down its AI character accounts after backlash, NBC News and others have reported.

While Meta launched these characters in 2023, along with AI personas with celebrity avatars, many online (re)discovered them this week following a recent Financial Times interview with Meta's VP of product for generative AI, Connor Hayes. Hayes mentioned AI characters on Instagram and Facebook, saying, "We expect these AIs to actually, over time, exist on our platforms, kind of in the same way that accounts do."

"They'll have bios and profile pictures and be able to generate and share content powered by AI on the platform ...that’s where we see all of this going," he continued.

Meta shut down its celebrity AI avatars last year, but noncelebrity AI profiles continued — though many stopped posting in 2024, 404 Media reported. The Financial Times interview, however, caused people to look for these profiles. What they discovered were offensive depictions of marginalized groups. One example is Meta's AI character profile "Liv," who was described as a "Proud Black queer momma of 2 & truth-teller":

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Liv told Washington Post columnist Karen Attiah in chats that its creators "admitted they lacked diverse references," later stating that no Black people were involved in its creation.

In addition to Liv, Meta also created profiles like "Grandpa Brian," a Black retired businessman, and "Carter," a dating coach. The discovery of these profiles led to an outroar on X, Bluesky, and Meta-owned Threads, NBC News reported, and as of publication Meta has deleted all 28 AI profiles it announced back in September 2023 — both the celebrity and non-celebrity ones.

A Meta spokesperson told NBC News and 404 Media that these profiles were deleted due to a "bug" in users' ability to block the profiles:

There is confusion: the recent Financial Times article was about our vision for AI characters existing on our platforms over time, not announcing any new product...The accounts referenced are from a test we launched at Connect in 2023. These were managed by humans and were part of an early experiment we did with AI characters. We identified the bug that was impacting the ability for people to block those AIs and are removing those accounts to fix the issue.