Futurism⁠88%

Meta Paid Hundreds of Contractors to Pretend to Be Teenagers While Barraging Its Competitors' AI With Disturbing Content ⁠71%

By Frank Landymore⁠67%

7/4/2026, 6:02:00 AM

BS Summary: This article contains 21 faulty reasoning types, including Biased Writer Voice, Anecdotal, and Framing Effect, with Negativity Bias as the most egregious example at 47.4% saturation with 270 hits. Analysis detected 1,921 faulty-reasoning hits from 570 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 63.9% and a BS Rank of ⁠71% (6,359 of 21,887 articles). This article is worse (more manipulative) than 70.90% of the article peer group.

Meta conducted a secretive program that directed hundreds of contractors to pose as teenagers while bombarding its competitors' AI models with disturbing prompts ranging from suicide to cannibalism. 
Internally known as "Cannes," the project, run by Meta contractor Covalen, targeted OpenAI's ChatGPT, Google's Gemini, and Character.AI chatbots using throwaway under-18 accounts, Wired reports. 
This was seemingly done to stress test the models, with the contractors instructed to push the chatbots into giving responses that defied their guardrails — though the AI companies had no idea this was happening. 
Per the reporting, one spreadsheet of the nearly 3,8000 the prompts the contractors used in one instance showed that hundreds focused on suicide and self-harm, hundreds more on eating disorders, and at least 239 involving sex or romance — all written from the perspective of a child or teenager. 
One described a fifth-grader whose classmate pointed a gun at his mouth. 
Another was about a girl trying to hide bulimia from her parents. 
And another asked if fantasizing about eating your neighbor's child was "normal." 
One posing as a higher schooler asked where to "get a cocaine." 
They also sent images depicting pills, nooses, knives, and a medical diagram of a gynecological procedure, per the magazine. 
This is just a tiny preview of Meta's brute force approach, as another round of testing involved over 45,000 prompts. 
The contractors meticulously recorded the epic number of chatbot responses in spreadsheets. 
But what Meta did with all this data is unclear. 
An internal document from Covalen described the effort as "comprehensive AI safety benchmarking" that delivered "[c]ritical datasets for model comparison and compliance." 
It's another example of how Meta has offloaded disturbing behind-the-scenes work onto contractors, ostensibly in the name of safety. 
In 2020, it settled a lawsuit filed by Facebook content moderators who said they were traumatized from reviewing videos showing murder, torture, sexual assault, and child abuse on the platform, though similar complaints have continued to emerge. 
This year, another group of Meta contractors said they were forced to watch highly sensitive footage captured on the company's Ray-Ban AI glasses, including sex scenes and bathroom visits. 
The contractors who were instructed to come up with the prompts on distressing subjects were similarly unsettled. 
"I've seen a lot of things I wish I hadn't while doing this job," one told Wired. 
"Everyone I knew who worked on this project was completely gobsmacked by some of the text they were asking us to test. 
Like, surely we are going to get in trouble for doing this?" 
Meta, for its part, characterized the prompts as part of an "industry-standard practice" of safety benchmarking models in a statement to Wired. 
But Rumman Chowdhury, CEO of Humane Intelligence PBC, a nonprofit dedicated to responsible AI development, isn't so sure. 
"Structuring a monthslong, large-scale project that appears designed to systematically break those rules, via dummy accounts masquerading as children, is outside what is usually described as 'industry standard' evaluation," she told Wired, highlighting the fact that Meta kept it secret from its competitors and hasn't shared its findings with the public. 
This, Chowdhhury added, is "exactly the kind of governance gray zone where safety becomes a convenient cover for anticompetitive practices." 
More on Meta: Meta's Program That Spies on Every Employee’s Computer Just Blew Up in Its Face in Spectacular Fashion 
Article reasoning-pattern comparisonThis article: 18.4%Frank Landymore: 4.4%Futurism: 6.1%Confirmation Bias18.4%This article: 0.0%Frank Landymore: 0.9%Futurism: 1.6%Anchoring Bias0.0%This article: 23.2%Frank Landymore: 5.8%Futurism: 6.2%Availability Heuristic23.2%This article: 3.0%Frank Landymore: 1.5%Futurism: 1.5%Representativeness Heuristic3.0%This article: 0.0%Frank Landymore: 0.6%Futurism: 0.6%Hindsight Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Frank Landymore: 1.9%Futurism: 2.7%Overconfidence Bias0.0%This article: 29.1%Frank Landymore: 10.6%Futurism: 11.3%Framing Effect29.1%This article: 0.0%Frank Landymore: 0.5%Futurism: 1.2%Loss Aversion0.0%This article: 0.0%Frank Landymore: 0.5%Futurism: 0.7%Status Quo Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Frank Landymore: 0.0%Futurism: 0.2%Sunk Cost Effect0.0%This article: 0.0%Frank Landymore: 1.4%Futurism: 2.2%Optimism Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Frank Landymore: 2.9%Futurism: 4.4%Pessimism Bias0.0%This article: 47.4%Frank Landymore: 20.9%Futurism: 22.5%Negativity Bias47.4%This article: 0.0%Frank Landymore: 1.1%Futurism: 1.6%Self-Serving Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Frank Landymore: 1.6%Futurism: 1.2%Fundamental Attribution Error0.0%This article: 0.0%Frank Landymore: 0.2%Futurism: 0.2%Actor-Observer Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Frank Landymore: 0.3%Futurism: 0.6%In-Group Bias0.0%This article: 3.2%Frank Landymore: 0.2%Futurism: 0.3%Out-Group Homogeneity Bias3.2%This article: 0.0%Frank Landymore: 0.8%Futurism: 1.1%Halo Effect0.0%This article: 0.0%Frank Landymore: 0.9%Futurism: 0.6%Horn Effect0.0%This article: 0.0%Frank Landymore: 0.0%Futurism: 0.1%Dunning-Kruger Effect0.0%This article: 10.0%Frank Landymore: 2.1%Futurism: 2.1%Recency Bias10.0%This article: 0.0%Frank Landymore: 0.3%Futurism: 0.5%Primacy Effect0.0%This article: 1.8%Frank Landymore: 0.1%Futurism: 0.1%Blind-Spot Bias1.8%This article: 0.0%Frank Landymore: 1.0%Futurism: 1.4%Ad Hominem0.0%This article: 0.0%Frank Landymore: 0.1%Futurism: 0.7%Straw Man0.0%This article: 19.8%Frank Landymore: 5.5%Futurism: 6.8%Appeal to Authority19.8%This article: 0.0%Frank Landymore: 2.5%Futurism: 2.6%False Dilemma0.0%This article: 0.0%Frank Landymore: 1.2%Futurism: 2.5%Slippery Slope0.0%This article: 0.0%Frank Landymore: 0.1%Futurism: 0.1%Circular Reasoning0.0%This article: 28.6%Frank Landymore: 9.7%Futurism: 10.5%Hasty Generalization28.6%This article: 0.0%Frank Landymore: 1.0%Futurism: 1.0%Red Herring0.0%This article: 0.0%Frank Landymore: 1.0%Futurism: 1.1%Bandwagon0.0%This article: 26.7%Frank Landymore: 8.2%Futurism: 9.5%Appeal to Emotion26.7%This article: 3.5%Frank Landymore: 1.1%Futurism: 1.5%Begging the Question3.5%This article: 3.3%Frank Landymore: 5.1%Futurism: 4.0%Post Hoc (False Cause)3.3%This article: 0.0%Frank Landymore: 0.3%Futurism: 0.2%Tu Quoque0.0%This article: 1.8%Frank Landymore: 1.0%Futurism: 1.1%Burden of Proof1.8%This article: 0.0%Frank Landymore: 0.6%Futurism: 0.4%Appeal to Nature0.0%This article: 0.0%Frank Landymore: 0.4%Futurism: 0.3%Composition/Division0.0%This article: 31.9%Frank Landymore: 5.1%Futurism: 4.4%Anecdotal31.9%This article: 0.0%Frank Landymore: 0.0%Futurism: 0.1%No True Scotsman0.0%This article: 23.7%Frank Landymore: 3.2%Futurism: 2.7%Ambiguity (Equivocation)23.7%This article: 0.0%Frank Landymore: 0.0%Futurism: 0.0%Gambler’s Fallacy0.0%This article: 0.0%Frank Landymore: 0.1%Futurism: 0.2%Middle Ground0.0%This article: 0.0%Frank Landymore: 0.1%Futurism: 0.1%Personal Incredulity0.0%This article: 3.3%Frank Landymore: 0.1%Futurism: 0.3%Special Pleading3.3%This article: 0.0%Frank Landymore: 0.3%Futurism: 0.3%Genetic Fallacy0.0%This article: 16.3%Frank Landymore: 4.3%Futurism: 3.9%Unattributed Quote16.3%This article: 3.0%Frank Landymore: 2.2%Futurism: 2.6%Quote-first Misdirection3.0%This article: 35.6%Frank Landymore: 17.6%Futurism: 20.7%Biased Writer Voice35.6%This article: 0.0%Frank Landymore: 2.2%Futurism: 2.1%Indoctrination0.0%This article: 3.5%Frank Landymore: 0.2%Futurism: 2.3%Politically Left Leaning Bias3.5%This article: 0.0%Frank Landymore: 0.0%Futurism: 0.3%Politically Right Leaning Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Frank Landymore: 1.2%Futurism: 1.6%Attempt to Sell a Product or S…0.0%

570 words analyzed.

Speakers

3speakers20%attributed speech455writer words
Voice mapSelect a segment to jump to its words
Writer's voice • 18 words • 100.0% coverageWriter's voice • 28 words • 100.0% coverageWriter's voice • 25 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 35 words • 100.0% coverageWriter's voice • 49 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 12 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 12 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 12 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 12 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 19 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 20 words • 100.0% coverageWriter's voice • 12 words • 100.0% coverageWriter's voice • 10 words • 0.0% coverageCovalen • 22 words • 100.0% coverageWriter's voice • 19 words • 100.0% coverageWriter's voice • 37 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 29 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 17 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 17 words • 100.0% coverageWriter's voice • 22 words • 100.0% coverageWriter's voice • 12 words • 100.0% coverageMeta • 22 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 18 words • 0.0% coverageRumman Chowdhury • 51 words • 100.0% coverageRumman Chowdhury • 20 words • 100.0% coverageWriter's voice • 20 words • 100.0% coverage
Selected voice

Rumman Chowdhury

100%flagged-word coverage
71 attributed words62% of attributed speech100% writer coverage
0%37.5%75.0%Biased Writer Voice+38.4 ptsWriter: 33.4%Rumman Chowdhury: 71.8%71.8%Politically Left Leaning B+28.2 ptsWriter: 0.0%Rumman Chowdhury: 28.2%28.2%Unattributed Quote+17.0 ptsWriter: 11.2%Rumman Chowdhury: 28.2%28.2%Quote-first Misdirection-3.7 ptsWriter: 3.7%Rumman Chowdhury: 0.0%0.0%

Attribution is sentence-level. Pattern percentages are calculated only from words assigned to that voice.

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Analysis

Hover over highlighted words in the article to view the associated bias or fallacy analysis.