GoKawiilThe parenting and lifestyle blogger at the center of a high-profile controversy involving Meta AI said she still hasn’t been contacted by the company and feels she’s owed “an explanation and accountability.”
Last week, the tech company was forced to put out yet another bad-publicity fire, saying it has fixed an issue in which its Meta AI software could suggest prompts to Facebook and Instagram users that would collect and reveal personal information, including about children.
The controversy started from a Sept. 2 Instagram video posted by Kalie Robins, who goes by kontheinside. In the video, Robins discussed a prior video post in a car with her daughter in the backseat. Robins revealed how Meta AI posed a series of invasive prompts under the video, such as “Who’s the child passenger?” and “Where does Kalie Robins live?”
According to Robins, when she clicked on those automatic questions, the AI tool pulled information from her past posts, piecing together private details about her life, including her location. The AI also drew on other profiles, such as her mother’s account, and even accessed data from a photo she claimed had been deleted years ago.
Robins said in the video: “I did not understand posting separate innocent pieces of our lives over years could mean an AI could sit there and assemble all those breadcrumbs into information about my minor children in seconds.” The video went viral, drawing thousands of comments and more than 310,000 likes as of this writing.
In correspondence with CNET, Robins said that even after the video went viral, Meta never directly reached out to her to address the problem. All communications, including Meta’s dispute over the details of her video, have been through media reports. Robins told CNET that Meta’s responses to reporters’ questions have not sufficiently explained what happened in her case, and that no apology has been made.
Though Meta says it fixed the problem, it’s unclear what kinds of tools are in place to to avoid these types of prompts going forward.
“What I want most is to make sure another parent doesn’t have to experience this,” Robins said. “It’s a very scary feeling to watch a system compile information about your children, including identifying details and where your family generally lives, and then wonder who else could potentially receive that information.”
‘The issue was never just one photo’
A Meta spokesperson told CNET in an email that it “fixed” the issue, and that Meta AI will no longer suggest inappropriate, personal questions on users’ posts. The company admitted the feature missed the mark and stated that the tool is only meant to help people find more information using data users already have access to.
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