--- title: "Facebook Forced to Defend Its Brand New, Already-Racist Chatbot" description: "Within the span of a weekend, Facebook's new chatbot learned to be a racist conspiracist— and the company has already had to respond to headlines about it. " date: "2022-08-10" modified: "2022-08-10" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/facebook-meta-defend-racist-chatbot" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "Meta" tags: - "chatbots" - "facebook" - "Meta" - "the digest" --- # Facebook Forced to Defend Its Brand New, Already-Racist Chatbot ![Within the span of a weekend, Facebook's new chatbot learned to be a racist conspiracist— and the company has already had to respond to headlines about it. ]() *\Image: Getty Images\* ## Oops Within the span of a weekend, Facebook's new chatbot learned to be a racist conspiracist— and the company has already had to respond to headlines about it. The seeming biases of BlenderBot3, Facebook-turned-Meta's new chatbot, which was recently made available to the public as part of a beta test, made headlines earlier this week. As [*Insider* reports](), it has already been caught making conspiratorial statements, anti-Semitic comments — and, ironically, [calling Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg]() "a bad person." In [an updated statement]() following *Insider*'s reporting, Meta AI executive Joelle Pineau defended the bot's problematic comments, arguing that they were integral to Meta's plans. "While it is painful to see some of these offensive responses," Pineau wrote, "public demos like this are important for building truly robust conversational AI systems and bridging the clear gap that exists today before such systems can be productionized." Translation: bots learning to say weird, bigoted stuff — including that Open Foundations philanthropist George Soros "[has been known to create]()" viruses like swine flu — is, apparently, all part of the process, a puzzling response that isn't exactly confidence inducing. ## Wink and Nod Pineau's statement goes on to say that the company requires everyone who interacts with BlenderBot3 to be 18 or older, know that it's for research and entertainment, acknowledge "that \[the chatbot\] can make untrue or offensive statements," and agree not to intentionally goad or trigger it into being offensive. Users self-select these acknowledgements when [entering the BlenderBot3 website]() — a safeguard that could easily be sidestepped. This isn't, of course, the first time [a chatbo]()t or an artificial intelligence has been caught [spewing bigoted]() or [otherwise messed up]() outputs — but Meta's shoulder-shrugging defense of the bot in the face of BlenderBot3's comments does leave a lot to be desired. **READ MORE:** [Meta's AI chatbot has some election-denying, antisemitic bugs to work out after the company asked users to help train it]() \[*Insider*\] **More on AI:** [*Analysis: No, AI Isn't Sentient, You Absolute Morons*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()