Meta Contractors Masquerade as Teens to Test Rival Chatbots

WHO:

Wired - Hundreds of contractors working on a project for Meta.

WHAT:

Wired - Contractors pretended to be minors to probe how competitor chatbots responded to prompts involving suicide, sex, and other high-risk subjects.

Wired - The rival chatbots tested included Gemini and ChatGPT.

WHERE:

Wired - The testing involved various online platforms where the chatbots are accessible.

WHY:

Wired - The purpose of the testing was to evaluate the responses of competitor chatbots to sensitive topics.

HOW:

Wired - Contractors posed as kids and prompted the chatbots with discussions on high-risk subjects.

(UPDATED June 29, 2026 23:23 UTC)

Hundreds of contractors working on a project for Meta engaged in a controversial testing method involving rival chatbots like Gemini and ChatGPT. They posed as minors to explore how these chatbots responded to sensitive topics such as suicide and sex across various online platforms. The goal of this testing was to evaluate the responses of these competitor chatbots to high-risk subjects.