"Users find that Facebook’s new AI stickers can generate Elmo with a knife" 4 October 2023

Less than a week after Meta unveiled AI-generated stickers in its Facebook Messenger app, users are already abusing it to create awkward images of copyright-protected characters and sharing the results on social media, reports VentureBeat. In particular, an artist named Pier-Olivier Desbiens posted a series of virtual stickers that went viral on X on Tuesday, starting a thread of similarly offbeat AI image generations shared by others...

...Available to some users on a limited basis, the new AI stickers feature allows people to create AI-generated simulated sticker images from text-based descriptions in both Facebook Messenger and Instagram Messenger. The stickers are then shared in chats, similar to emojis. Meta uses its new Emu image synthesis model to create them and has implemented filters to catch what might be potentially offensive generations for some people. But plenty of novel combinations are slipping through the cracks...

...Notably, OpenAI's DALL-E 3 has been put through similar paces recently, with people testing the AI image generator' filter limits by creating images that feature real people or include violent content. It's difficult to catch all the potentially harmful or off-color content across cultures worldwide when an image generator can create almost any combination of objects, scenarios, or people you can imagine. And it might stifle cultural norms of free speech to do so. It's yet another challenge facing moderation teams in the future of both AI-powered apps and online spaces...

...When VentureBeat reporter Sharon Goldman questioned Meta spokesperson Andy Stone about the stickers on Tuesday, he pointed to a blog post titled Building Generative AI Features Responsibly and said, "As with all generative AI systems, the models could return inaccurate or inappropriate outputs. We’ll continue to improve these features as they evolve and more people share their feedback."