Meta in need of an explanation

Zuckerberg’s AI chatbot denied Trump assassination attempt

Donald Trump was almost shot dead at a campaign event in Pennsylvania in mid-July. The assassin's bullet grazed his ear.

(Bild: APA/Getty Images via AFP/GETTY IMAGES/Anna Moneymaker)

An AI chatbot that denied the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump has put the Facebook group Meta in need of an explanation. Meta refers to so-called "hallucinations", in which software with AI simply makes things up. The industry has not yet found a real solution to the problem.

Meta had to justify itself after criticism from the political camp of Trump supporters. It was denounced that the chatbot "Meta AI" first refused to answer questions about the assassination attempt on the ex-president - and then claimed in part that it had never taken place.

The company explained in a blog post that it had initially deliberately not allowed "Meta AI" to talk about the failed assassination attempt on July 13. This is because there is often contradictory information and unfounded speculation, including conspiracy theories, surrounding headline-grabbing events.

But even after the AI chatbot had been fed with information about the attack, it claimed "in a few cases" that it had not happened, Meta admitted. This was "unfortunate", but not intentional.

Not only Meta's AI "hallucinates"
 The "hallucinations" are a general problem with AI chatbots and have to do with how the software works. The programs are initially trained with huge amounts of information. When responding to user queries, they then weigh up word for word how a sentence should probably continue.

As a result, the software can throw together completely incorrect statements, even if it has only been trained with correct information. AI developers are trying to get the problem under control with the help of additional guard rails for the programs.

In a second problem, a photo showing Trump with his bodyguards immediately after the assassination attempt was incorrectly given a fact-check label. This was originally a manipulated version in which a smile had been added to the faces of the bodyguards. However, it was difficult for Meta's automated systems to recognize the difference between the two photos - and they also added the fact-check label to the original photo.

In the assassination attempt, a man had shot at Trump during a campaign appearance in the US state of Pennsylvania. The bullets killed one spectator and wounded two others. The ex-president was hit in the ear.