If you knew how many people communicate solely through stickers, it would surprise you. Since stickers arrived in instant messaging apps, millions of people use them to express feelings or thoughts. And now, AI has taken the game to a whole new level.
The initial tests of Meta’s new AI-generated sticker tool have resulted in some aberrant (and quite humorous) creations.
After gaining access to the new AI-generated sticker tool on Facebook Messenger, user @Pioldes was able to create a series of inappropriate images, including child soldiers, armed Nintendo characters, Mickey Mouse in various unconventional situations, and much more that we won’t detail here.
Other examples demonstrate that Meta’s tool is also capable of putting a pair of breasts on… well, almost anything, judging by the images of Sonic the Hedgehog and Karl Marx.
There’s even a sticker showing a woman breastfeeding Pikachu. Honestly, this makes no sense at all.
They were Meta’s big novelty a week ago
AI-generated chat stickers were announced last week at Meta’s Connect event, along with a new AI image editor for Instagram.
These AI-generated stickers, based on Meta’s large language model Llama 2 (a competitor of ChatGPT), allow users to create “multiple unique and high-quality stickers in seconds” using text-based instructions.
AI-generated stickers are currently rolling out to “select English-speaking users” on Facebook Stories, Instagram Stories, and DMs, Messenger, and WhatsApp throughout this month. It’s unclear how many users have access to this feature.
Certain words appear to be blocked, and using them in messages will warn the user that their description might violate Meta’s community guidelines.
However, other users have reported that inappropriate content can still be generated using typographical errors or descriptions of restricted words.
These kinds of “glitches” are common with the launch of AI tools, which is likely why Meta is conducting a limited rollout of the AI-generated sticker feature. But the memes that are surfacing are already here to stay.