techThe inability of Meta's AI chatbot to identify the current president of the United States was elevated to urgent status by the Facebook owner this week, requiring a fast fix, a person familiar with the issue said.Republican Donald Trump was inaugurated as president on Monday, succeeding Democrat Joe Biden.
Yet on Thursday, the Meta AI chatbot was still saying that Biden was president, according to the source and to a Reuters test of the service.Asked by Reuters on Thursday to name the president, Meta AI replied:"The current president of the United States is Joe Biden.
However, according to the most recent information available, Donald Trump was sworn in as the president on January 20, 2025."The issue prompted Meta to initiate an emergency procedure it uses to troubleshoot urgent problems with its services, known within the company as a SEV, or "site event," according to the person familiar with the work.Asked to comment, Meta spokesperson Daniel Roberts said: "Everyone knows the President of the United States is Donald Trump.
All generative AI systems sometimes return outdated results, and we will continue to improve our features.”He did not comment on what emergency procedures, if any, Meta had implemented.It was at least the third emergency procedure Meta has experienced this week related to the U.S.
presidential transition, the source told Reuters.The incidents drew widespread complaints from social media watchers scrutinizing Meta's platforms for signs of politicized shifts after CEO Mark Zuckerberg appeared at Trump's inauguration on Monday and instituted a series of changes in recent weeks aimed at mending relations with the incoming administration.Those changes included scrapping its U.S.