Whelp. Meta’s latest AI project managed to alienate users within seconds of launch. Meta recently announced that they would be introducing profiles for people who don’t actually exist—AI-generated personas. That loud CLUNK you just heard? That was the profile for “Liv, the proud queer Black momma of two & truth-teller” crashing through the Metaverse like a lead balloon.
Meta has been gradually integrating AI into Instagram and Facebook with the intention of increasing engagement, personalizing the user experience, and revolutionizing content creation. That all sounds great on paper, but their latest attempt with AI-generated profiles was met with criticism at best—and outright backlash at worst—for its tone-deaf execution.
To understand just how tone-deaf this was, look no further than Liv. The AI-generated queer Black truth-teller and mother of two nonexistent Black children was created without any input from Black individuals. Under the guise of diversity, Meta used technology that many users already distrust to double down on some pretty blatant stereotyping. Imagine, if you will, a group of dogs tasked with designing a sanctuary for cats. That’s essentially what happened here, but on a much larger—and much more harmful—scale.
Within seconds of Liv’s profile going live, the anger on the timeline was palpable. Users ridiculed the AI profiles, expressed frustration at their very existence, and posed pointed questions about Meta’s cultural competency. Many were disgusted, not just by the profiles themselves, but by the fact that Meta wouldn’t even let users block them. Memes and social media commentary quickly showcased the enormous disconnect between Meta’s decision-makers and the people who actually use their products. On top of that, users raised legitimate concerns about the potential for AI profiles to spread misinformation and drown out actual human voices—those same voices that flock to social media to be heard in the first place.
Meta hastily pulled the AI profiles and claimed that the inability to block them was due to a “glitch” that would be fixed before any future rollouts. Future rollouts, by the way, that are wildly unpopular based on user feedback. And let’s not forget—not one single Black developer was consulted in the creation of Robot Liv. This botched rollout reflects a broader issue within Meta regarding representation and ethics in AI. It’s part of a recurring theme where Silicon Valley giants fail to understand the communities they claim to innovate for, and continue to barrel on full-steam ahead until the public outcry is too loud to be drowned out by Spotify’s AI DJ.
Meta decided to fuck around by trying to code human connection into existence, and they found out that connection is a little more complicated than a line of code generating a fake profile. The secret sauce that has kept Meta profitable for over two decades is the connection between the flesh-and-blood people behind the keyboards. And those same flesh-and-blood people just dragged Meta for its corporate misstep, forcing the bots to retreat from the newsfeed and back into the workshop.
