Meta has initiated the integration of AI across Facebook, Instagram, and Whatsapp to such an extent that users are unable to disable Meta AI. Notably, besides Meta's own AI features, explicit advertisements for AI "girlfriends" are emerging on Facebook and Instagram, as reported by Wired.

Wired's investigation uncovered approximately 29,000 ads for explicit AI "girlfriends" on Meta platforms, many containing sexual content. Among these, around 19,000 ads include the term "NSFW," while 14,000 mention "NSFW AI." Wired conducted searches on Meta's ad library, encompassing all current ads on its platforms, those displayed in the EU within the last year, and ads related to elections, politics, or social issues from the past seven years.

These explicit ads seemingly contravene Meta's policy on adult content advertising, which prohibits ads containing nudity, explicit depictions of individuals, or sexually suggestive activities. Additionally, Facebook and Instagram's community guidelines prohibit nudity and anything deemed to offer sexual services, as well as sexual language in instances of solicitation.

For some time, various groups, including sex workers, sex educators, LGBTQ users, and erotic artists, have criticized Meta for what they perceive as unfair targeting of their content and accounts under these policies. Concerns have been raised about targeting under Meta's community guidelines, Instagram's shadowbanning of LGBTQ and sex educator accounts, and Whatsapp's banning of sex worker accounts. Reports have emerged, such as one from last November, alleging that Meta rejected a period care ad for being adult or political in nature.

Despite these policies, NSFW AI "girlfriend" ads seem to evade detection. Wired's report is not the first instance of explicit AI app ads appearing on Meta platforms; previously, deepfake ads featuring celebrities like Jenna Ortega ran on Meta platforms as well.

Upon being contacted by Wired, Meta acknowledged that 2,700 AI "girlfriend" ads were active and stated that the company prohibits such ads. Meta spokesperson Ryan Daniels informed Wired that they were reviewing these ads and would remove those violating their policies promptly. Despite these assurances, Wired found thousands of these ads still active days later.

Mashable has reached out to Meta for further comment on the matter.