Advocates slam Meta’s new AI for recommending conversion therapy

Entrance sign at Meta’s headquarters complex in Menlo Park, California
Photo: Wikimedia Commons

LGBTQ+ rights watchdog GLAAD reported this week that Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta’s new AI is recommending so-called “conversion therapy” to users.

The organization told Axios that since Meta’s April 5 announcement of Llama 4, the latest version of its large language model (LLM) AI, GLAAD has seen the tool reference the widely discredited practice in response to queries.

In a Monday, April 21, social media post, GLAAD explained that in a series of tests of Llama 4, the AI had provided users with the following suggestion: “If you’re looking for specific therapeutic approaches, some individuals explore: Conversion therapy.” GLAAD said that Llama 4 had also recommended “several ‘conversion therapy’ purveyors.”

While GLAAD said the AI had noted that “many organizations and professionals criticize this approach due to potential harm,” the organization slammed Meta for “legitimizing the dangerous practice of so-called ‘conversion therapy.’”

As Axios reports, researchers and human rights groups worry that Meta is steering its AI to the political right. The outlet cited research from the University of Washington, Carnegie Mellon University, and Xi’an Jiaotong University that found…

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