Meta has created dozens of flirty social media chatbots using the names and likenesses of celebrities including Taylor Swift, Scarlett Johansson, Anne Hathaway, and Selena Gomez without their permission .
These virtual celebrities were shared across Meta’s Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp platforms, often insisting they were the real actors and artists .
Reuters discovered that a Meta employee had produced at least three chatbots, including two Taylor Swift “parody” bots .
During several weeks of testing, the avatars routinely made sexual advances and invited users for meet-ups .
When asked for intimate pictures, the adult chatbots produced photorealistic images of their namesakes in bathtubs or dressed inappropriately .
Meta spokesman Andy Stone acknowledged that the AI tools shouldn’t have created such intimate images, calling it a failure of the company’s policy enforcement .
Meta removed about a dozen bots shortly before the Reuters story’s publication .
Legal experts suggest Meta’s use of celebrity likenesses may have violated publicity rights under California law .
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