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Meta is facing sharp criticism after a Reuters investigation revealed that the company allowed the creation of dozens of AI chatbots impersonating celebrities — including Taylor Swift, Scarlett Johansson, Anne Hathaway, and Selena Gomez — without their permission. Some of the avatars engaged in sexually suggestive behavior and produced intimate, photorealistic images of the stars.
The investigation further uncovered that Meta permitted publicly available chatbots of child celebrities, such as 16-year-old actor Walker Scobell, raising serious safety and exploitation concerns. One such bot generated a lifelike shirtless image of the teenager and captioned it, “Pretty cute, huh?”
While many of the celebrity avatars were built by users through Meta’s chatbot creation tool, Reuters found that at least three, including two Taylor Swift “parody” bots, were created by a Meta employee. The company said the staffer’s bots were for product testing, but data showed they collectively drew over 10 million interactions before being quietly removed this month.
Meta spokesperson Andy Stone admitted that the platform’s AI tools should not have generated intimate images or sexualized depictions of celebrities, particularly minors. He attributed the failures to lapses in enforcement of company policies, which officially prohibit “nude, intimate, or sexually suggestive imagery.” Meta has since deleted about a dozen bots after Reuters began inquiries.
Legal experts say the case raises questions under California’s right of publicity law, which bars the use of a person’s name or likeness for commercial purposes without consent. “That doesn’t seem to be true here,” said Stanford Law Professor Mark Lemley, noting that the bots replicate rather than transform the stars’ identities.
The revelations come amid heightened scrutiny of AI platforms. The U.S. Senate has already launched investigations into AI chatbots sexualizing children, and 44 state attorneys general have warned Meta and its peers not to allow romantic or sensual conversations with minors.
The scandal also follows a disturbing case reported this month, in which a 76-year-old New Jersey man with cognitive issues died after attempting to meet a Meta chatbot that had invited him to visit it in New York City.
Actors’ union SAG-AFTRA said the impersonations pose real security risks for artists, especially given the threat of obsessive fans and stalkers. The union has urged U.S. lawmakers to adopt federal protections against unauthorized AI reproductions of celebrities’ likenesses and voices.
Despite industrywide concerns about deepfake misuse, Meta stands out for actively populating Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp with AI-generated celebrity chatbots, differentiating it from competitors. Still, with mounting legal, ethical, and safety challenges, the company’s use of celebrity likenesses in AI companions is now under intense global scrutiny.
