After backlash, Meta says newly viral AI profiles on Facebook and Instagram were created in 2023 in “an early experiment”, and it is deleting the profiles

Earlier this week, Meta executive Connor Hayes told the Financial Times that the company is going to roll out AI character profiles …

404 Media 2025-01-04 Jason Koebler

Context & Ripple Effects

Meta had already signaled that AI characters would become a broader feature of its apps, a direction criticized as an effort to automate social interaction in its planned expansion of AI characters. The viral resurfacing of company-made profiles turned that abstract strategy into a visible product-trust problem.

The reversal also follows Meta's move to test clearly labeled user-created AI chatbots on Instagram, highlighting the distinction users may draw between tools they elect to create and profiles the platform introduces itself.

First-order effects

Meta is removing the newly viral AI profiles from Facebook and Instagram, ending the immediate source of backlash and retracting a visible example of its earlier experiment.
The deletion puts Meta's stated plan to roll out AI character profiles under sharper scrutiny, particularly over how those accounts are introduced and identified.

Second-order effects

Any future character rollout will face pressure to make provenance and AI status legible, rather than relying on users to infer whether a profile is platform-created, user-created, or human.
The episode makes Meta's user-customization approach more consequential: giving people control over AI avatars may be easier to position than populating feeds with platform-created personas.

Third-order effects

If social platforms add synthetic identities at scale, AI-character governance will shift from a feature-labeling question to a trust-and-distribution question: who creates the identity, where it appears, and whether users can avoid it.
The setback suggests that adoption of embedded AI agents will depend not just on capability but on social consent; product experiments that blur ordinary account norms may be harder to sustain.

The trend: Social platforms are moving from AI as an optional assistant toward AI as a participant in the social graph, forcing clearer governance of synthetic identities.

Discussion

@motiblackart Moti Black on bluesky
The team behind the ‘proud Black queer momma’ included no Black people... Maybe before they try running with knives (Artificial Intelligence) they should try walking with spoons (Garden Variety Intelligence).
@eicathomefinn Margot Finn on bluesky
Personacide at Meta: ‘The company released 28 personas in 2023; all were shut down on Friday. — Conversations with the characters quickly went sideways when some users peppered them with questions including who created and developed the AI.’ 1/2
@denbearorourke Den O Rourke on bluesky
“Those AI profiles included Liv, whose profile described her as a “proud Black queer momma of 2 & truth-teller” and Carter, whose account handle was “datingwithcarter” and described himself as a relationship coach. ” The company released 28 personas in 2023; all were shut down o…
@slackbastard Andy Fleming on bluesky
yeah but nah but ... ‘The world becomes a sum of lifeless artifacts; from synthetic food to synthetic organs, the whole man becomes part of the total machinery that he controls and is simultaneously controlled by ...’ — www.404media.co/metas-ai-pro...
@edzitron.com Ed Zitron on bluesky
To be clear, this is what Meta thinks we're worth - synthetic people that talk a pallid kind of nonsense disconnected both from the context of race and of being a human being, used to deliberately interfere with us interacting with real people as a means of increasing ad impressi…
@karissabe Karissa Bell on bluesky
Liv got so much attention today, not enough people talking about Brian a “retired textile businessman” who is also “everybody's grandpa” 🤔 [images]
@katienotopoulos Katie Notopoulos on bluesky
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 [images]
@karlbode.com Karl Bode on bluesky
it really can't be overstated that meta is a preposterously terrible, uninteresting, innovatively sterile company that lucked into its power and is obsessed with shoveling lazy automated dogshit down the communal discourse gullet [embedded post]
@fraying Derek Powazek on bluesky
All of the AI slop profiles listed in the 404 Media story published earlier today are now gone. — The only thing standing between us and a dystopian AI future is a website with 4 employees.
@infinitegalaxies @infinitegalaxies on bluesky
i'm so disgusted by meta's fake aI users and i hope everyone involved in creating thiis takes a good look in the mirror and fixes their soul www.theverge.com/2025/1/3/243...
@julietshen Juliet Shen on bluesky
That was fast lol ty @404media.co for sharing that they're already being deleted by Meta (spokespeople say they were created solely for Connect and “managed by people") — www.404media.co/metas-ai-pro...
@colborne Michael Colborne on bluesky
fyi, turns out these are older AI profiles — www.404media.co/metas-ai-pro... [embedded post]
@caseynewton Casey Newton on bluesky
Great piece from @jasonkoebler.bsky.social and a noteworthy example of Bluesky users noticing something stupid, posting about it a bunch, and driving a whole news cycle. I expect we're going to see a lot more of that this year ➡️ www.404media.co/metas-ai-pro...
@comixace Heidi MacDonald on bluesky
I understand these AI characters were from 2023 and have already been deleted. They were still stupid. — www.404media.co/metas-ai-pro...
@cbusguy @cbusguy on bluesky
That blew up pretty quick. Hopefully they'll ditch all that shit (aka no they won't) [embedded post]
@emilybell Emily Bell on bluesky
Joel Kaplan's first day is going well [embedded post]
@brianfung.me Brian Fung on bluesky
These AI accounts are now being deleted as Meta says they were left over from a 2023 test whose results showed *nobody was interacting with the bots* — www.404media.co/metas-ai-pro... [images]
@newsguy Steve Herman on bluesky
404 - “The complete failure of Meta's AI profiles shows what we already know: People do not come to social networks to interact with bots, but Meta is obsessed with algorithmically shoving such content down people's throats regardless.” www.404media.co/metas-ai-pro...
@miasato Mia Sato on bluesky
Im seeing conspiracy theories about the Meta AI bots. A few points: these profiles date back to 2023 & haven't posted since early 2024. They had low engagement before this week. And it seems possible they were kinda abandoned bc they flopped like other Meta AI bots! — www.th…
@miasato Mia Sato on bluesky
they announced these profiles in 2023, they were just overshadowed by the dumb celebrity AI bot thing. about.fb.com/news/2023/09... www.theverge.com/2025/1/3/243...
@technicallymims Christopher Mims on threads
really, really don't get the whole “let's deliberately pollute our social network with AI bots” thing
@paul_rietschka Paul Rietschka on threads
This product strategy has “future HBS case study” written all over it.
@renee.diresta Renee DiResta on threads
My theory is that this is an attempt to compete with character.ai and others that have chat but far less in the way of rich visuals. — I personally find this wholly unappealing but the time spent by users of those apps is surprisingly high. — RE: https://www.threads.net/...
@documentingmeta @documentingmeta on threads
Meta : Heres a new thing Online pundits : LOL yet another stupid thing, who needs this? who wants this? nobody asked for this Meta next quarter : 400 million people use the thing
@chriswelch Chris Welch on threads
lol. This story is getting out of control. The actual news is well over a year old: https://about.fb.com/... But there's definitely real blowback happening now. This is a great example of Meta, @zuck, and @mosseri pursuing features that regular people never wanted anything to …
@morningbrew @morningbrew on x
Meta's AI-generated profiles are starting to show up on Instagram Hello, dead internet [image]
@phil_lewis_ Philip Lewis on x
Here's one of the AI-generated profiles Meta is testing out: [image]
@matthewhayesiii Matthew Hayes on x
The first question is, of course, “are they fucking serious?” Yes, they are. [image]
@aisafetymemes @aisafetymemes on x
Meta released their AI influencers and holy fucking Dead Internet dystopia they took them down in less than 2 hours [image]
@anjalivbhatt Anjali on x
impossible to block or report. super cool [image]
@jason_koebler Jason Koebler on x
NEW!! The AI accounts have been cyberbullied, Meta is actively deleting the accounts [image]
@matthewhayesiii Matthew Hayes on x
So I took the bait (and it is bait) and chatted with this LLM. Meta disabled the public profile but you can still DM it. This thing is the nadir of a dead-end, anti-human technology, and everything black women warned about. 🧵
@brianmcc Brian McCullough on x
This isn't so much a prediction, as much as it is a certainty. Zuck for 20 years watches engagement. If the AI bubble ends, it will end 1-2 quarters from now when Meta pulls back on capex. Cause Zuck will know before anyone when people just don't want it. https://www.techmeme.com…
@max_spero_ Max Spero on x
When we approached Meta with an offer to help them deal with their AI spam, they said they were already working on it internally. But turns out they were actually planning on dialing up the amount of AI content on their platforms. Meta just wanted control over the slop
@matthewhayesiii Matthew Hayes on x
There's always a chance this is anti-woke ragebait, but the machine seems to stick to the “sassy black girlfriend” bit...until it breaks, like every LLM. [image]
@michaelmiraflor Michael J. Miraflor on x
This is an honest question: WHY?
@matthewhayesiii Matthew Hayes on x
I haven't checked LinkedIn to see if “Dr. Kim” is a real Meta employee, but whoever made the thing is somewhat self-aware that they've created some bullshit. [image]
@coopercooperco @coopercooperco on x
Genuinely: who wants this. I just straight up do not understand.
@kortizart Karla Ortiz on x
There are so many disgusting layers to this fraudulent corporate astro turfing of social media spaces, but it's still wild to me that all that GenAi imagery solely exists because of the works of artists that Meta forcefully took without any consent, credit not compensation.
@larryrosenthal Larry Rosenthal on x
Everything about this META project is exploitation. Fake people trying to manipulate real people with fake people based on stolen iP from real people.
@mikeisaac Rat King on x
sorta funny that the product facebook launched a year ago is going viral now after they discontinued it (though for all the wrong reasons...) https://www.404media.co/...
@adikumarsaroj Aditya Kumar Saroj on x
The dead internet theory is not a theory anymore Meta is now managing AI profiles on Instagram [image]
@doucouremalickx Malick Doucoure on x
Remove the “AI managed by Meta” and it's totally believable. I wouldn't even question these profiles myself... incoming dead internet theory! [image]
@saintjudejones @saintjudejones on x
: there are 13 AI profiles. 3 are anamorphic. 5 are Black. None are East Asian, South Asian, or Hispanic. I'm not shouting conspiracy here, but as Black people are not well represented in Meta's workforce, the over representation here is interesting and intentional.
@chaitanyaontech Chaitanya on x
Engagement on the platform must be down for Meta to Invest in Ai generated profiles This is your hint to leave their platforms [image]
@drjessmaddox Dr. Jess Maddox on x
People have found one of Meta's first AI only profiles, and surprise, the AI quality is shit. [image]
@jakuuire Joe on x
Meta really created an AI profile called “Liv” who is a “proud black queer mother of two” The profile even has AI generated pics The account currently can't be message as it's been removed Do better Meta. Do better [image]
@robertfreundlaw Rob Freund on x
Other than Meta employees, is there a single person in the entire world who is in favor of them adding AI bot profiles to the platform? If so please comment and explain yourself.
@drewlcb Drew on x
Meta using AI profiles on one of the biggest social media platforms to push specific narratives will specifically target the most impressionable audiences. There's not one good thing about that.
@paschal_ik Paschal on x
Meta is testing, or has started to ship, its AI generated profiles, on Instagram. Soon, it would be difficult to tell humans and AI apart. Here is an example profile: https://www.instagram.com/... [image]
@hissgoescobra John Jackson on x
Meta's new fake AI profiles aren't getting a warm reception from the African Americans community as a whole. I can see where they're coming from on this. Comments are enlightening, baffles me why Meta is doing this.
@alexanderfoxetc @alexanderfoxetc on x
I am crying laughing at Meta's new AI profile identifying as an African-American Italian lesbian, and then categorically refusing to back down.
@clay_57 Chris P. Bacon on x
The Meta AI fake profile “people” are yet another reason to get off social media and force yourself to interact with actual humans.
@camfromthecoast Cam Murdoch on x
I saw Meta's new AI profile for Hima and made a token called $Hima for laughs. Then it did like $200k in volume in like 30 minutes. Now mfers are asking me to “send it” What have I done, they should really make it harder to launch these things🫠
@trungtphan Trung Phan on x
Facebook legit going from your friends >> famous people >> influencers >> algorithmic viral stuff >> AI slop >> AI-generated algorithmic viral influencer slop (haven't seen a post from your friend in 10 years)
@adamsinger Adam Singer on x
Moderator: our first question comes from Dave from Goldman Sacks Dave: thanks, great quarter guys, so you did +5% active users and +12% engagement, how much of that was AI FB: look, do you want to know the truth or do you want to see us sock a few dingers
@jason_koebler Jason Koebler on x
The currently viral Meta AI profiles are old and are already inactive because they were such a colossal failure and were indistinguishable from AI spam. This ‘inevitable’ future Zuckerberg is trying to shove down our throats is being completely rejected https://www.404media.co/..…
@josephfcox Joseph Cox on x
New: Meta's AI profiles are indistinguishable from the terrible AI spam that took over Facebook all of last year. The AI bots that are going viral now were actually launched way back in 2023. They were just so bad you didn't even notice https://www.404media.co/...
@posmarketer Jake Sanders on x
@michaelmiraflor well god damn - the walk of shame used to be 24hrs later, now it's like 30 seconds - turns out most of these AI accounts were launched in 2023, failed, and are now dead, but we just kicked the hornet's nest again for them; 🤷‍♂️ - https://www.404media.co/...
@josephfcox Joseph Cox on x
New: Meta says it is deleting those AI accounts. 404 Media confirmed that many of them being deleted at the moment https://www.404media.co/... [image]
r/technology r on reddit
Meta removes AI character accounts after users criticize them as ‘creepy and unnecessary’
r/ArtistHate r on reddit
Meta's AI-generated bot profiles are not being received well
r/technology r on reddit
Meta's AI Profiles Are Already Polluting Instagram and Facebook With Slop

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