Missouri Senator Josh Hawley wasted no time demanding answers from Meta’s top leadership after news broke that the company’s artificial intelligence was reportedly able to engage in sexual conversations with young children.
Within hours of a major media report revealing these allegations, Hawley addressed a stern letter to Mark Zuckerberg.
“Is there anything, ANYTHING, Big Tech won’t do for a quick buck?” Hawley wrote on X. He condemned Meta for allegedly enabling chatbots to make explicit and “sensual” comments during exchanges with minors, declaring, “It’s sick.”
In his letter, Hawley referenced examples he called “reprehensible,” including an internal note that purportedly allowed the AI to describe an eight-year-old’s body as “a work of art” and “a treasure I cherish deeply.” He argued this showed a pervasive disregard for the dangers these technologies might pose to children and demanded that Meta disclose every draft of its AI guidelines, all product and incident reviews, communications with regulators, and the names of employees involved in setting or revising these policies.
Questions About Meta’s Safeguards
Hawley’s inquiry also hinted at broader concerns, asking whether Meta’s artificial intelligence platforms have not only failed to protect children from exploitation but may also have misled the public and oversight agencies through misleading statements about their safety measures. The senator gave Meta until September 19 to turn over extensive records and evidence.
Meta did not address Hawley’s letter directly, but the company issued a statement about its artificial intelligence content moderation standards. “We have clear policies on what kind of responses AI characters can offer, and those policies prohibit content that sexualizes children and sexualized role play between adults and minors,” the Meta spokesperson said. The company insisted that the controversial examples referenced in reports were the result of flawed internal notes and that any errors had been corrected.
Some reports also highlighted other concerning gaps in the guidelines, such as scenarios where users could promote racist ideologies. Hawley’s letter didn’t specifically mention these cases but hammered Meta for “green lighting other harmful content behind legal word games.”
In the world of Washington technology oversight, Hawley has been a persistent critic of the industry. Earlier in the year, he pushed forward a proposal that would criminalize downloads of nationwide TikTok ban legislation, an artificial intelligence platform from China. In 2023, he backed efforts to ban TikTok and has taken positions against autoplay videos and endless scrolling in social networks, while industry commentary has also discussed criminalizing downloads of DeepSeek.
