Hey Meta AI, Is This Fraud? Publish.
Amanda Silberling
Meta gonna Meta:
It sounds like the start of a 21st-century horror film: Your browser history has been public all along, and you had no idea. That’s basically what it feels like right now on the new stand-alone Meta AI app, where swathes of people are publishing their ostensibly private conversations with the chatbot.
When you ask the AI a question, you have the option of hitting a share button, which then directs you to a screen showing a preview of the post, which you can then publish. But some users appear blissfully unaware that they are sharing these text conversations, audio clips, and images publicly with the world.
Is it Meta's fault that people are seemingly unknowingly sharing such things despite the prompt telling them what they're about to do? On one hand, I guess not. On the other:
Whether you admit to committing a crime or having a weird rash, this is a privacy nightmare. Meta does not indicate to users what their privacy settings are as they post, or where they are even posting to. So, if you log into Meta AI with Instagram, and your Instagram account is public, then so too are your searches about how to meet “big booty women.”
I just tried to post something and while I did get a disclaimer about the posts being public, it was also in small type, in gray, and far less prominent than that BIG BLUE 'POST TO FEED' BUTTON. Potentially more problematic: I hit the post button and now have absolutely no idea where it actually posted. I can't find it on my Meta AI feed. Nor do I see it on Facebook or Instagram – also, the fact that I have to check to see if it posted to those is a bit terrifying...
I suspect we're about to see a new Meta "Privacy Center" roll out with a thousand menus and options, none of which make much sense and many of which seem to contradict each other. But you know, in the spirit of simplicity and sharing.
Also, has anyone at Meta used the internet for the past couple of decades? No one reads such prompts and if they do, they probably don't understand them, or don't care. Or all of the above. And this was all so obviously inevitable, seeing as... I noted it back in April:
What if Meta brings over the Facebook and/or Instagram graphs? Again, maybe that's fun for a time, but I'm not sure how sticky that product is. And there are perhaps some very real downsides if people don't fully understand what they're sharing – as is clearly already happening! It's not just AI slop, it's AI sloppy.
Back to Silberling:
When I woke up this morning, I did not expect to hear an audio recording of a man in a Southern accent asking, “Hey, Meta, why do some farts stink more than other farts?”
Flatulence-related inquiries are the least of Meta’s problems. On the Meta AI app, I have seen people ask for help with tax evasion, if their family members would be arrested for their proximity to white-collar crimes, or how to write a character reference letter for an employee facing legal troubles, with that person’s first and last name included. Others, like security expert Rachel Tobac, found examples of people’s home addresses and sensitive court details, among other private information.
Could be worse, could be celebrity chatbots farting, I guess. The main post of my post from April was wondering if it wasn't time for Meta to move beyond all of this social nonsense and start taking AI seriously:
As for Meta and AI, I think they probably need to do something far more interesting and inspiring. Something beyond incorporating user data from Facebook and Instagram. Sure, AI ad optimization may pay off, literally (as it needs to), but they're clearly aiming for something larger. Something outside of the prompt box.
Well, they're seemingly doing that now. But they should probably roll back some of this social stuff, as it's not going to entice many to join Zuckerberg's Team Superintelligence.
M.G. Siegler
M.G. Siegler
M.G. Siegler
M.G. Siegler
M.G. Siegler