Instagram users discover old AI-powered “characters,” instantly revile them
A little over a year ago, Meta created Facebook and Instagram profiles for "28 AIs with unique interests and personalities for you to interact with and dive deeper into your interests." Today, the last of those profiles is being taken down amid waves of viral revulsion as word of their existence has spread online.
The September 2023 launch of Meta's social profiles for AI characters was announced alongside a much splashier initiative that created animated AI chatbots with celebrity avatars at the same time. Those celebrity-based AI chatbots were unceremoniously scrapped less than a year later amid a widespread lack of interest.
But roughly a dozen of the unrelated AI character profiles still remained accessible as of this morning via social media pages labeled as "AI managed by Meta." Those profiles—which included a mix of AI-generated imagery and human-created content, according to Meta—also offered real users the ability to live chat with these AI characters via Instagram Direct or Facebook Messenger.