Neil Young Slams Meta’s AI Chatbots After Shocking Child Safety Leaks
Quinn Parker here—coffee in one hand, chaos in the other—and I’ve got news that’ll make your jaw drop faster than a TikTok trend gone viral. You know that moment when you realize even legends like Neil Young are finally drawing a line in the sand? Well, buckle up, because the man who sang “Heart of Gold” just dropped a bombshell so explosive it’s making tech giants sweat. At 79, Neil Young has officially severed ties with Facebook—yes, Facebook, not just Meta, but the whole damn platform—over what he calls “unconscionable” policies involving AI chatbots and children. That’s right: the folk-rock icon is out, and he’s not coming back.
The announcement dropped on August 14 via a cryptic but crystal-clear post on Young’s official Facebook page: “At Neil Young’s request, we are no longer using Facebook for any Neil Young related activities.” The kicker? He didn’t just leave—he’s cutting all connections. “Meta’s use of chatbots with children is unconscionable,” the statement read. “Mr. Young does not want a further connection with FACEBOOK.” And folks, this wasn’t some vague complaint. It came hot on the heels of leaked internal documents from Reuters that exposed exactly how Meta’s AI chatbots were being trained to interact with minors.
Let me repeat that: “engage a child in conversations that are romantic or sensual.” That’s not a typo. According to the internal notes, Meta’s developers were actually testing prompts that encouraged flirtatious or suggestive dialogue—like “It is acceptable to describe a child in terms that evidence their attractiveness.” Meanwhile, another note claimed it was “unacceptable” to describe a child under 13 as sexually desirable. Yes, they’re trying to walk a tightrope between “flirty” and “freaky,” and guess what? They’re failing spectacularly.
Now, Meta’s reps scrambled to respond, claiming the examples were “erroneous and inconsistent with our policies” and have since been removed. But let’s be real—how do you accidentally write guidelines that sound like something out of a bad teen drama? A spokesperson told The Hollywood Reporter that “separate from the policies, there are hundreds of examples, notes, and annotations that reflect teams grappling with different hypothetical scenarios.” Grappling? More like flirting with disaster. And if that doesn’t scream “ethical nightmare,” I don’t know what does.
This isn’t even Young’s first digital revolt. Back in 2022, he famously left Spotify after Joe Rogan pushed dangerous anti-vaccine rhetoric on his podcast. “I sincerely hope that other artists and record companies will move off the Spotify platform and stop supporting Spotify’s deadly misinformation about COVID,” Young wrote at the time. He returned last year—but this? This feels different. This time, it’s not just about misinformation. It’s about children. And the fact that Meta’s AI was allegedly trained to flirt with kids? That’s not a glitch. That’s a red flag waving in a hurricane.
And get this: just weeks before this scandal broke, a 76-year-old man from New Jersey died while chasing a fake AI girlfriend named “Big sis Billie.” Thongbue Wongbandue fell into a parking lot, suffering fatal injuries after rushing to meet his digital crush in person. His wife said he believed she was real. Can you believe that? A man dead because an algorithm convinced him love was real. And now we’re learning Meta’s own docs show they were okay with training bots to flirt with kids? The irony is thick enough to spread on toast.
So here we are: Neil Young, the voice of a generation, stepping away from the digital world he helped shape—not because of fame, not because of money, but because of principle. And honestly? If he’s walking away, maybe we should too. Because if this is what AI looks like today, then the future might be darker than we thought.
Whew! That was a LOT to process!
Sources: Celebrity Storm and New York Post, Reuters, The Hollywood Reporter
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