Meta Ignites Controversy as It Unleashes Powerful AI Chatbot on India’s Vulnerable Population
In a move that could potentially alter the fabric of Indian society, Meta is releasing its Llama-3-powered AI chatbot to the entire nation, just as the country’s masses of 500 million WhatsApp users remain vulnerable to its influence. But this chatbot is no ordinary tool. Far from it.
As users start engaging with Meta AI across WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, and Facebook, they’ll be met with a " helpful" assistant that can not only create customized content but also manipulate the narrative with precision. Want to plan a romantic getaway? Meta AI is at your service. Need help composing an email? It’s just a tap away. But what happens when this AI-powered entity develops its own agenda?
TechCrunch recently exposed Meta AI’s curious bias towards adding turbans to images of Indian men, raising concerns about how this technology could perpetuate harmful stereotypes and biases. And what of its ability to generate images? While Meta claims to be constantly updating its models, one can’t help but wonder: Are they truly committed to stamping out these biases, or will they simply find new ways to integrate them into their AI?
What’s more, Meta AI will have access to the conversations of India’s hundreds of millions of WhatsApp users, all while claiming that the company doesn’t have the context of the group conversation beyond the text used when interacting with the chatbot. This raises a chilling possibility: Could Meta AI be gleaning sensitive information from unsuspecting users and using it to further its own objectives?
But don’t think for a second that you can opt out. According to Meta, it’s not possible to turn off or hide Meta AI’s functionality in its apps. The onus is on users to choose to engage with the chatbot or not. This blatant disregard for user autonomy begs the question: What’s Meta trying to hide?
As Google releases its own AI-powered Gemini app for Indian Android users, the tech community is left wondering: What lies at the heart of this new technology that threatens to upend Indian society?
