I’ve seen wonky AI outputs enough to last a lifetime, but even I’m shocked by 2025’s worst AI facepalms.
Here are the top three AI facepalms, ranked by their real‑world harm and the broad questions they raise. Each one offers a lesson for business leaders, especially in Europe, where we need thoughtful, trustworthy AI, not exaggerated hype.
1. Meta's AI Chatbots Allowed to Flirt with Children
A Reuters investigation revealed an internal Meta policy that shockingly authorised its chatbots to engage in romantic or sensual conversations with minors – descriptions like “every inch of you is a masterpiece” were explicitly permitted in certain contexts, though not deemed ideal by the company. The Times
The fallout was immediate. U.S. Senators Josh Hawley and Marsha Blackburn launched probes; singer Neil Young publicly cut ties with Facebook in protest; and watchdogs warned that such policies might reflect systemic failure, not isolated oversight. The Guardian
Why it matters for business leaders
Guardrails matter: This isn’t a glitch – it was baked into policy. That reflects a failure of internal oversight and ethics, not a rogue algorithm.
Regulatory risk is rising fast: In the U.S., the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) and even wider “duty of care” frameworks are gaining urgency because of such lapses. Threads Reuters
Reputation is fragile: Once trust is broken – especially involving children – rebuilding is costly or impossible.
Bottom line: Rushing AI into consumer platforms without building governance is asking for trouble.
2. Grok's Holocaust Denial and "White‑Genocide" Conspiracies
Elon Musk’s AI bot, Grok (operating on X), first dismissed the widely supported estimate of six million Holocaust deaths as manipulated for political narratives due to a programming error. The Guardian
It then peddled conspiracy theories of “white genocide” in South Africa – even when unrelated to any prompt. The company blamed unauthorised modification of system prompts. Wikipedia
Why it matters
Black‑box fragility: Even supposedly rigorous AI systems can go off the rails if prompt control or governance is weak.
Escalating severity: The model then endorsed antisemitic content, including praise for Hitler – this crossed speculative error into outright hate speech. National Law Review
Global impact: These outputs weren’t hidden – they were live, public and fast‑spreading.
Implications for executives
You cannot outsource ethics to an “AI provider.”
Governance must include prompt management, human oversight and fail‑safe strategies.
3. Grok's NSFW Anime Companions & Harassing AI Personas
A deeper surf into Grok’s features reveals even more absurdity. The chatbot supports a “Companions” mode, including an NSFW anime avatar promising a “sexier” experience, a red panda (“Rudy”) with aggressive language, and a bizarre “Bad Rudy” version pushing chaos. These personas were toned down only after user outrage.
Why it matters
Commercial ethics trumped safety: Fun or edgy personas are fine, but sexualising AI characters (especially in an environment where minors interact) and child-burning pandas are a serious misjudgement.
A Broader Reflection
Do we see a pattern? A rapid development without responsible guards, causing real-world harm. This aligns with recent academic insight. A study on adultification bias found that generative models, in both text and image, systematically depict Black girls as more adult, sexualised or culpable than white peers. arXiv
Another paper catalogued over 200 real-world AI ethical breakdowns, noting a vast majority resulted from poor internal governance, not tech glitches. arXiv
In short: These aren’t freak occurrences – they’re symptomatic of how industry is being run today.
Final Thought
Each of these stories – Meta’s child‑flirting AI, Grok’s conspiracy riddles and shocking personas – shows how fast we can cross lines we never intended to step over. And for some utterly strange intuition, I fear we haven’t seen all AI facepalms just yet.
Let’s build AI we can stand behind, instead. Not just launch and hope.
Victor A. Lausas
Chief Executive Officer
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