51ºÚÁÏ

Hawley, Missouri's senior GOP senator and member of the Senate's judiciary committee, has given Facebook's parent company, Meta, until Sept. 19 to provide more complete information regarding its child protection efforts.

Specifically, Hawley is calling Meta to task for recent news that its artificial intelligence chatbot appeared to have sent  messages to underage users.

After Hawley's initial complaints, Meta tweaked its AI policy with the goal of preventing such messages.

In an interview with the Post-Dispatch, Hawley said Meta is not the only AI-generating company that is engaged in questionable practices.

"I'm afraid it's not just Meta ... but other AI companies are doing much the same thing," Hawley said.

"We're talking about 8-year-old kids, 9-year-old kids, who are getting drawn into explicit talks with these chatbots ... so that Meta can make money, so they can get more attention, more time, gather information on the kid, sell them more stuff (and) sell their parents more stuff."

Hawley said he was especially irked by evidence that points to Meta knowing its chatbots would operate in such a manner, "and they signed off on it."

"It's child abuse," Hawley said. "This is just wrong; this is sick."

In response to Hawley's accusations, a Meta spokesman told the New York Times last month that the company has “clear policies on what kind of responses A.I. characters can offer, and those policies prohibit content that sexualizes children and sexualized role play between adults and minors.�

This is not the first issue that has set Hawley against Meta and other AI efforts.

In July, Hawley and U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Connecticut, introduced legislation to hold technology companies accountable for illegally pirating copyrighted works to train their AI models.

Provisions of the bill include prohibiting AI companies from using, without permission, individuals’ copyrighted materials; requiring companies to disclose every third party that would access an individual’s data; and allowing those who believe they have been wronged to file suit in federal court.

"I can't think of any worse actors in the United States right now than these tech companies," Hawley said. "They are the worst and we've got to expose what they're doing,"

Hawley and Blumenthal are not alone among senators focused on Meta and AI-related reforms.

Senate judiciary chair Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, has been seeking information from Meta about advertisements allegedly targeting the emotional state of users.