Jun 29, 2026 5:49 PM

Meta Contractors Posed as Teens to Prompt Rival Chatbots About Suicide, Sex, and Drugs

Hundreds of contractors working on a project for Meta pretended to be kids in order to see how other chatbots like Gemini and ChatGPT would respond to high-risk subjects, WIRED found.

Photograph: Nathan Posner/Getty Images

Hundreds of contractors working on a project for Meta were instructed to pose as minors online and probe how competitor chatbots responded to prompts involving suicide, sex, eating disorders, and other high-risk subjects, according to internal documents and five people familiar with the project.

You’ve read your last free article.

The intersection of technology, power, and culture. Start your free trial and get access to 5 all-new premium newsletters—cancel anytime.

START FREE TRIAL

Already a subscriber? Sign In

The intersection of technology, power, and culture. Get WIRED today. START FREE TRIAL

Comments

There aren’t any comments yet.

Be the first to start the conversation!
You need an account to add or like comments.

In your inbox: Brian Kahn’s guide to how the universe works
Leak exposes members of Peter Thiel’s secretive ‘Dialog’ society
Big Story: How Hunter Biden won the internet
Tesla batteries keep getting stolen before they even leave the factory
Special edition: The future of home

Dhruv Mehrotra is an investigative data reporter at WIRED, where he uses technology to find, build, and analyze datasets for accountability journalism. His reporting has examined surveillance, policing, data brokers, platforms, and the government agencies and companies that use them. Before joining WIRED, he worked at Bloomberg News, the Center for ... Read More

Senior Correspondent, Investigations

Joel Khalili is a senior writer at WIRED, covering the artificial intelligence industry in Europe. He previously covered cryptocurrency extensively and was named one of the Professional Publishers Association’s 2024 most exciting rising stars in UK publishing. Before joining WIRED, he was an editor at TechRadar, where he wrote about ... Read More

Senior Writer

TopicsMeta chatbots Safety Google Gemini ChatGPT OpenAI artificial intelligence

Meta’s AI Workers Are Revolting, Peter Thiel’s Secret Society, and SBF’s Plea to Trump

On today’s Uncanny Valley, we dive into the dysfunction in Meta’s newly formed AI unit and why it’s been driving already-low employee morale even further into the ground.

Brian Barrett

A Court Has Ruled That Google Is Liable for False Statements Generated by AI Overviews

The ruling holds that a company that designs, trains, operates, and manages an AI system must assume legal liability for any damages caused by the responses it generates.

Fernanda González

‘Pretty Crazy’ Token Usage Is Testing Bosses’ Bet on AI

A Silicon Valley software maker and an ecommerce company reveal to WIRED how they are navigating the emerging challenge of “tokenomics.”

Paresh Dave

Anthropic Says It’s Taking Claude Fable 5 Offline to Comply With US Government Order

“The government believes it has become aware of a method of bypassing, or ‘jailbreaking’ Fable 5,” the company said in a blog post.

Maxwell Zeff

‘Dangerous’ AI Models Are Coming No Matter What

The US government crackdown on Anthropic’s Claude Fable 5 and Mythos 5 hides a glaring truth: AI models with advanced hacking capabilities will soon be the norm.

Lily Hay Newman

The White House Is Making Up Its Rules for AI in Real Time

Anthropic still can’t distribute Claude Mythos or Fable 5 after running afoul of the Trump administration. But no one can say exactly what the company did wrong.

Maxwell Zeff

Google DeepMind Unionization Talks Are Off to a Rocky Start

During negotiations on Wednesday, employees voiced frustrations with what they consider an unwillingness among executives to engage meaningfully with the prospect of unionization.

Joel Khalili

Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth Admits the Company’s AI Reorg Was ‘Atrocious’

In an internal memo seen by WIRED, Bosworth promised employees more stability, better communication, and the return of workplace perks as the company seeks to improve morale.

Lauren Goode

Meta Pauses Employee-Tracking Program Following Internal Data Leak

The move comes after the company left potentially sensitive data from the initiative exposed internally.

Paresh Dave

The Korean Telecom Giant at the Center of Anthropic’s Mythos Controversy

Days before Anthropic took its most advanced AI models offline, the White House ordered the company to revoke SK Telecom’s access to Claude Mythos over claims of alleged ties to China.

Louise Matsakis

ICE’s Internal Watchdog Is Now Investigating Online Critics

The Office of Professional Responsibility has opened more than 100 cases over what ICE officials call “incidents of doxing and threats” against ICE employees.

Maddy Varner

Meta Exposed Data Internally From Its Controversial Employee-Tracking Program

Employees had previously raised concerns about the initiative, which involves collecting workers’ keystroke data to train AI models.

Paresh Dave

Comments

You Might Also Like

Don't Just Keep Up. Get Ahead