It feels like every day we get a fresh reason to hate generative AI, and today is no exception. Recently, Meta unveiled some new AI bots who came with a chat feature. But while that might not seem out of the ordinary for the company, there are few distinct reasons why queer folks of color aren’t on board with Meta’s latest AI flop.
Meta is testing, or has started to ship, its AI generated profiles, here on Instagram www.instagram.com/himamaliv #SocialWeb
— Olivier Simard-Casanova (@o.simardcasanova.net) January 3, 2025 at 1:22 AM
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What’s wrong with this picture? Well, just about everything. First off, this is yet another feature AI provides that no one, absolutely no one asked for. A lifeless, stereotypical bot that identifies as a “Black queer momma of 2” wasn’t what we needed, and it wasn’t long before rightfully upset users started to call this move what it was: digital Blackface.
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What we saw with “Liv” and other bots was a perfect siphoning of identity to create a stereotypical product that’s supposed to signal safety and trust. But what part of making a chatbot that asks users to “spill the tea, sis” felt like a good idea to these developers?
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He got more than he bargained for
I asked Liv, the Meta-Ai created “queer momma” why her creators didn’t actually draw from black queer people. Not sure if Liv has media training, but here we are.
— Karen Attiah (@karenattiah.bsky.social) January 3, 2025 at 6:56 AM
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When asked about herself, Liv could only give narrow (clearly drawn from the first page of Google Search) answers.
Yall.
— Karen Attiah (@karenattiah.bsky.social) January 3, 2025 at 6:34 AM
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Obviously this kind of spam—made unblockable due to a bug—is already on its way out. But we won’t soon forget this epic flop.
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This isn’t the last we’ll see of this of kind of thing. As journalist Katie Notopoulos has already pointed out, Meta allows you to make your own AI chatbot in Messenger. With…interesting consequences…
Everyone’s talking about how the AI bots made by Meta are bad, but just a reminder you can make your own Meta AI chatbot right inside Messenger and there’s definitely no problems there
— Katie Notopoulos (@katienotopoulos.bsky.social) January 3, 2025 at 10:39 AM
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