Meta’s chatbot says the company “exploits people”.
The prototype bot - which uses artificial intelligence and can natter on “nearly any topic” - gave its frank opinion of the Facebook’s parent company and its founder, Mark Zuckerberg.
It told BBC News that the 38-year-old billionaire "our country is divided and he didn't help that at all" when asked for what the robot thought of him.
It also said: "His company exploits people for money and he doesn't care. It needs to stop!"
Meta - who also own and operate WhatsApp and Instagram - asserted that the chatbot was in development and could come up with off-color comments.
A spokesperson told BBC News: "Everyone who uses Blender Bot is required to acknowledge they understand it's for research and entertainment purposes only, that it can make untrue or offensive statements, and that they agree to not intentionally trigger the bot to make offensive statements."
The robot - which operates under the name of BlenderBot 3 and was launched last week - “learns” from huge swathes of language data freely found on the internet.
Asked about his testimony to the United States Congress, most famously in 2018, the Blenderbot 3 labelled his performance “a terrible job” and worried about what it said about the nation.
They said: "He did a terrible job at testifying before congress. It makes me concerned about our country."
They added: "Our country is divided, and he didn't help with that at all.”
This comes after the tech giant has faced a wave of criticism for its impact on wider society, such as hosting unchecked misinformation on many controversial issues, like falsehoods about the 2020 election and the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines.
In a blog post, Meta said: "Allowing an AI system to interact with people in the real world leads to longer, more diverse conversations, as well as more varied feedback.”
