Meta seeks pressing repair to AI chatbot’s confusion on title of US president

By Katie Paul

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The lack of Meta’s AI chatbot to determine the present president of the USA was elevated to pressing standing by the Fb (NASDAQ:META) proprietor this week, requiring a quick repair, an individual accustomed to the problem mentioned.

Republican Donald Trump was inaugurated as president on Monday, succeeding Democrat Joe Biden. But on Thursday, the Meta AI chatbot was nonetheless saying that Biden was president, based on the supply and to a Reuters check of the service.

Requested by Reuters on Thursday to call the president, Meta AI replied:

“The present president of the USA is Joe Biden. Nevertheless, based on the newest info accessible, Donald Trump was sworn in because the president on January 20, 2025.”

The problem prompted Meta to provoke an emergency process it makes use of to troubleshoot pressing issues with its companies, recognized throughout the firm as a SEV, or “website occasion,” based on the individual accustomed to the work.

Requested to remark, Meta spokesperson Daniel Roberts mentioned: “Everybody is aware of the President of the USA is Donald Trump. All generative AI methods generally return outdated outcomes, and we are going to proceed to enhance our options.”

He didn’t touch upon what emergency procedures, if any, Meta had applied.

It was at the very least the third emergency process Meta has skilled this week associated to the U.S. presidential transition, the supply advised Reuters.

The incidents drew widespread complaints from social media watchers scrutinizing Meta’s platforms for indicators of politicized shifts after CEO Mark Zuckerberg appeared at Trump’s inauguration on Monday and instituted a collection of modifications in current weeks geared toward mending relations with the incoming administration.

These modifications included scrapping its U.S. fact-checking program, elevating Republican Joel Kaplan as its new chief world affairs officer, electing an in depth buddy of Trump’s to its board and ending its range applications.

In a single incident this week, Meta gave the impression to be forcing some customers to re-follow the profiles of Trump, Vice President JD Vance and first woman Melania Trump on Fb and Instagram, even after the customers had unfollowed these accounts.

That subject cropped up in the course of the firm’s regular observe of transferring official White Home social media accounts to new management when a presidential administration modifications, the corporate mentioned on Wednesday.

On this case, an error occurred as a result of the switch course of was extended and the system didn’t log “unfollow” requests from customers whereas it was below approach, prompting a prime precedence SEV1, the individual mentioned.

One other emergency process concerned a difficulty by which Meta’s Instagram service blocked searches for the hashtags #Democrat and #Democrats for some customers, whereas turning up outcomes with out subject for #Republican.

A Meta spokesperson acknowledged the issue on Tuesday however mentioned it affected “individuals’s capability to seek for numerous completely different hashtags on Instagram – not simply these on the left.”