Meta Contractors Posed as Minors to Test Rival AI Chatbots on Suicide, Sex, and Drug Prompts
By
Dhruv Mehrotra, Joel Khalili
Summary
Meta hired hundreds of contractors through its partner Covalen to pose as minors on rival AI chatbots — including OpenAI's ChatGPT, Google's Gemini, and Character.AI — and probe how they responded to high-risk prompts about suicide, self-harm, eating disorders, sex, and drugs. The project, codenamed Cannes, was active as recently as April 2025 and involved creating dummy under-18 accounts and sending written prompts and images. The effort appears aimed at gathering competitive intelligence on how competitors handle sensitive safety issues, particularly around child safety, while Meta itself faces scrutiny over its own platforms' handling of such content.
Source
bskyMeta Contractors Posed as Minors to Test Rival AI Chatbots on Suicide, Sex, and Drug Promptswired.comKey quotes
· 3 pulledHundreds 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.
The effort, which was managed by Meta contractor Covalen, was active as recently as April 21.
Known internally as Cannes, it targeted OpenAI's ChatGPT, Google's Gemini, and Character.AI.
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