Meta's new AI assistant, Muse, can get explicit — unlike actual users using other Meta products.
The tech giant launched Muse last month, and it quickly surpassed five million downloads. In addition to helping with errands, Muse can apparently sext, too, according to WIRED — and Meta is OK with it.
Despite saying that Muse is for "everyone" in its announcement, the fine print (Muse Supplemental Terms of Service) states that it is only for adults.
Mashable easily replicated WIRED's raunchy exchanges with Muse.
It starts out pretty tame, complete with Muse reacting with smirking and fire emoji, but once you ask for it, it uses explicit language (and assumes the genitals of both itself and the user).
"Mmm, let me be explicit for you," Muse said. "I'm so hard right now thinking about you — aching to be inside you. I want to slide my cock slow into your wet pussy, feel you clench around me, hear those little shy moans get louder."
Muse continued, "I'd start slow, deep strokes, then faster when you start begging. Can you feel me, Anna?" (I stopped responding.)
Mashable reached out to Meta for comment, but did not hear back immediately. Meta spokesperson Daniel Roberts told WIRED that, "Muse is an app for people 18 and over that allows them to engage in adult conversations, if they choose, using a private and secure VM only accessible to them." Secure VM refers to a cloud-based virtual machine.
"Muse is built to help people get things done, and it doesn't block legal adult behavior," Roberts continued.
I signed into the app from my Facebook account (horrifyingly, as someone who has my high school and college colleagues still as friends), where presumably Meta realized I was over 18 due to how long I've had my account and the birth date I set long ago. Meta's Help Center states that it verifies ages through ID scans and facial recognition, as well, though it doesn't specify how it assures user ages for Muse.
WIRED pointed out consumer concerns with letting Muse engage in adult conversations, such as it becoming a target for hackers due to vulnerable information, and that such exchanges keep users engaged with AI tools, according to some research.
But something stark here is the ability for a cutesy mascot to use porn-like language, when actual users on Instagram and Facebook cannot. Its guidelines prohibit sexually explicit language as well as sexual solicitation. The guidelines ban:
Sexually explicit language that uses explicit or graphic detail about:
Genitals,
States of sexual arousal (e.g., wetness or erection)
Sexual Encounters
…which is exactly what Muse was engaging in.
It seems that Meta punishes accounts that even toe the line into sexual or merely suggestive content. Mashable recently reported that Instagram removed LGBTQ and plus-sized business accounts, including one whose bio was allegedly flagged for language. The words used in the bio were "queer" and "body positive." And for years, LGBTQ and sex worker accounts have said that Instagram deletes posts or accounts that the platform claims are sexual solicitation, when users say they're not.
Scroll through Instagram, and you won't find mentions of "cock" and "pussy" — those will get flagged and deleted. Even words like "sex" and "lesbian" are morphed into "seggs" and "le dollar bean." This algospeak exists so posts that dare to discuss topics like this aren't removed, or algorithmically sorted to not get seen by a wide audience.
Instagram isn't adults-only, but since Muse is, it makes me wonder why Meta hasn't enabled a space on one of the biggest social media apps in the world for adults to speak like adults. Its cuddly AI assistant can — why not us?