So-called “thirst traps” posted on social media by attention-hungry real people have recently faced an influx of digital competition: artificial intelligence.
Start-ups marketing sexually available virtual companions to lonely men have started popping up on social media.
The ads promise “AI girlfriends” whose underlying machine learning architecture learns the user’s preferences.
Sites like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok are concerned, as these new ads have demonstrated an uncanny ability to evade content moderation roadblocks and block such overtly sexual content.
Even worse, certain ads repurpose memes featuring well-known children’s TV characters, from Cookie Monster to SpongeBob SquarePants, in questionable “fair use” cases to promote the AI sex apps and their ability to generate “NSFW pictures.” to promote.
Suspicious AI sex app ads are flooding Instagram, Facebook and TikTok. Certain ads feature memes of well-known children’s TV characters, from Cookie Monster to SpongeBob SquarePants, in questionable “fair use” cases to promote their “NSFW pictures”
Social media giant Meta has created an ad library that allows users, the public, regulators and academics to track the ads placed on their platforms, including Instagram and Facebook. Above one of the snappy, tricky new AI sex bot ads as posted in Meta’s ad library
Other ads show digitally or possibly AI-generated girls whose undetermined age can be read as teens or younger.
In turn, Meta has claimed it has a handle on the ads, which appear to be in violation of their policies.
The ads promise “AI girlfriends” whose underlying “machine learning” architecture learns the user’s preferences — creating ever-increasing simulated intimacy as the real person on the other end hangs on to their fake love interest longer
The company reports this in a statement NBC newsis Meta’s position that the ban on adult content does not exclude AI-generated content.
“Our policy prohibits ads with adult content that is overly suggestive or sexually provocative, whether AI-generated or not,” said a human spokesperson for Meta.
“Our policies and enforcement are designed to adapt in this highly hostile space, and we actively monitor emerging trends in AI-generated content.”
Meta also told the news outlet it is reviewing the version of its policy that is open to the public and advertisers to make sure their language is clear enough.
Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and TikTok have been in conflict for years and in some cases for more than a decade with sex workers, sex education advocates and artists all complaining about draconian and prudish moderation policies.
Many of these proponents are alarmed by the platform’s tacit approval or lenient treatment of these app developers’ paid ads.
“Sex workers shouldn’t monetize their image,” says Carolina Are, a researcher at Northumbria University’s Center for Digital Citizens, “but a tech who creates a similar AI image can.”
Polly Rodriguez, CEO of Unbound, told NBC News that her company often faced huge obstacles when advertising with Meta.
She expressed confusion and annoyance at the ability of these AI chatbot ads to somehow evade content moderation, suggesting the issues point to inconsistent enforcement and bias.
“They’re not addressing the core issue: Why are these ads getting through in the first place?” said Rodriguez.