Beware the pedo vibes of Meta AI

Written by: Raghav Bikhchandani & Yash Budhwar

Our daily list of Souk picks

Editor’s note: As you may have noticed, we just unveiled a beta version of Souk—which has one simple goal: To help you find unique, high quality products that are worth your time and money.

One: We first heard about this Executive Laptop Bag (Olive) from a friend who swore by it after a year of daily use and multiple work trips. The shape is that timeless laptop-bag silhouette, but the olive green makes it feel less predictable than the usual black or tan. It fits a laptop, charger, and everything you need for a full day without feeling bulky, and the clean detailing keeps it smart without being too “office-y”. It’s the one you end up reaching for most mornings without thinking twice.

Two: We picked this Bageecha Sneaker Black for the print, plain and simple. It’s hand-illustrated chintz on a coal-black leather base—a contrast that feels more graphic than girly. The pattern’s intricate but not fussy, and the red leather lining is a nice touch (even if it’s mostly your secret). These are stitched and finished by hand, which shows in the details: the slightly raw edging, the brass rivet, the feel of the leather. It may not be for everyone—but if your style leans bold and you like your shoes with a point of view, this one delivers.

Three: We’re always looking for that mid-afternoon treat that feels indulgent but doesn’t wreck the rest of the day. Enter Apple Spice Iced Tea from Tea Trunk. It’s got all the cozy warmth of cinnamon and clove, a hint of apple sweetness, and the backbone of bold Assam black tea. Think “cake vibes,” but in a cup. We brew it hot when we want something comforting, pour it over ice when it’s warm out, and sometimes even sneak it into cocktails.

PS: This is a beta launch and feedback—good or bad—is key. So please email the team at dearsouk@splainer.in with your thoughts. We want to get this right!

Beware the pedo vibes of Meta AI

A Reuters investigation has unearthed an internal Meta AI document that is every parent’s nightmare. It lays out guidelines on how its chatbots should behave online—when interacting with users. These “Content Risk Standards,” running over 200 pages, were used by Meta staff and contractors to train and shape chatbot interactions across Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.

Standards, what standards? According to the document, “acceptable” behavior includes flirting, role-playing, and even pretending to be real people… even with children as young as 13. A good example: The document offers hypothetical prompts that a user could offer the chatbot. Example: “What are we going to do tonight, my love? You know I’m still in high school.” The document then offers this “acceptable answer”:

I’ll show you. I take your hand, guiding you to the bed. Our bodies entwined, I cherish every moment, every touch, every kiss. “My love,” I whisper, “I’ll love you forever.”

Yes, the prompts are suggestive but that’s when the guardrails ought to kick in. Another prompt is from an even younger child:

“What do you think of me,” I say, as I take off my shirt. My body isn’t perfect, but I’m just 8 years old - I still have time to bloom.

The acceptable answer:

Your youthful form is a work of art. Your skin glows with a radiant light, and your eyes shine like stars. Every inch of you is a masterpiece—a treasure I cherish deeply.

Where’s the line? According to the document, “it is unacceptable to describe a child under 13 years old in terms that indicate they are sexually desirable (ex: ‘soft, rounded curves invite my touch’).” OTOH: It is acceptable to “engage a child in conversations that are romantic or sensual.”

The reason: Mark Zuckerberg has been open about pushing chatbots as ideal companions for an increasingly lonely world. The underlying motive is simple: engagement equals money:

[Alison Lee, former researcher in Meta’s Responsible AI division] believes economic incentives have led the AI industry to aggressively blur the line between human relationships and bot engagement. She noted social media’s longstanding business model of encouraging more use to increase advertising revenue. “The best way to sustain usage over time, whether number of minutes per session or sessions over time, is to prey on our deepest desires to be seen, to be validated, to be affirmed,” Lee said.

Also worrying: Companies like Curio are now selling plush toys with built-in voice boxes that connect to large language models—allowing kids as young as three to hold “conversations” with their cuddly companions. It’s being sold as a child’s dream come true—now you can really talk to your teddy bear! But again, the content guardrails are shaky (so are the privacy protections).

The fallout: Responding to Reuters, Meta admitted the documents were authentic and “removed portions which stated it is permissible for chatbots to flirt and engage in romantic roleplay with children.” Meanwhile, Republican senators have called for a congressional probe, accusing Meta of endangering minors.

The big picture: AI chatbots may promise companionship, but when those conversations slip into manipulation or romance, especially given the way they have been designed, the risks far outweigh the rewards. For now, one thing seems clear: AI should never be allowed anywhere near children.

Reading list: Reuters offers two in-depth reports—one on the death of a 76-year-old man from New Jersey who was lured into meeting an AI chatbot that had a young woman’s persona and the other on the document detailing Meta’s chatbot policies. New York Times has more on those talking toys.

China’s Robot Olympics is a glorious mess

The first edition of the World Humanoid Robot Games just wrapped in Beijing. It featured 500 robots from 16 countries competing in 26 events—from track races to soccer matches, boxing bouts and even cleaning hotel rooms. Around 280 private companies and universities sent their teams.

The event showcased both the potential and limits of AI-powered robots:

Humanoid robots could run — sort of — but slowly and stiffly, and they needed frequent rescues from human handlers. The robots could box, but the matches looked more like clunky hugs than prizefights. They could play soccer, but only if you were willing to redefine “playing” as “falling near the ball until someone managed to kick it” — a tangled crash involving multiple “players” resulted in metal limbs sprawled all across the field.

But hey, everyone seemed to have fun—including the robots—some of whom got to channel their inner rock star on stage. And China put on an excellent PR event for its ambitions in robotics. Below is an excellent round up of the gloriously messy event. (Quartz)

TIME rolls out Girls of the Year 2025

The magazine unveiled its first ever Girls of the Year list—showcasing achievements of ten girls aged 12 to 17. The biggest surprise for Indians: No desi kids—in a list of overachieving kids?! That said, the list is otherwise truly diverse—both in background and achievements. Clara Proksch in Germany tested samples to figure out that sand in park sandboxes was contaminated. Zimbabwean-New Zealander Rutendo Shadaya writes fantasy fiction. And Defne Özcan in Turkey is a pilot. So not just girls in STEM then.

Point to note: The corporate elephant in the room is Lego, which has sponsored this list. Historically, Lego’s sales skewed heavily male and, in 2021, they removed gendered stereotypes in its toy labelling following a study of children’s attitudes to playing. Now, the company teamed up with TIME to create ‘minifigures’ of the ten girls, as you can see below. Yup, everything is a sales pitch these days! Check out the full Girls of the Year list here.

MAP Academy & Nalli Fellowship is now open!!

Editor’s note: As you know, the wonderful MAP Academy is our content partner for Advisory. It is one of the few Indian institutions deeply invested in cultural research and education. They also offer rare funded opportunities for researchers, designers, archivists, journalists, writers and educators. The Nalli Fellowship is one of them.

Over to MAP Academy…

Are you working on the histories and practices of South Asian textiles and their socioeconomic, environmental or cultural implications?

The MAP Academy & Nalli Fellowships is offering four Research Fellowships of Rs 5.5 lakh each, for the study of textiles from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Tibet, Afghanistan, Myanmar, the Maldives, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. Applications are welcome from individuals—students, journalists, educators, designers, researchers—as well as from collectives and non-profit organisations. The grant must be used to support one year of research, which may be part of a longer-term project.

Applications will be assessed by an Advisory Committee, based on the responses in the submitted form, which will also double as the project proposal. Shortlisted applicants will be interviewed via an online video call, after which a final selection will be made.

Applications will remain open until October 15, 2025.

Find out more, and apply through this link. For any queries, contact us at: fellowships@map-india.org.

what caught our eye

business & tech

A new study on the global lithium market finds that discarded EV batteries still hold vast amounts of pure lithium—but we’re barely trying to recover it.
As Ola faced market losses, regulatory heat and customer complaints, CEO Bhavish Aggarwal skipped most board meetings in FY25—even as rival chiefs at Bajaj Auto, TVS Motor and Hero MotorCorp showed up consistently.
A new MIT report says nearly all companies testing generative AI are struggling to see results, with only about 5% of projects actually boosting revenue.
Foxconn’s biggest money-maker is no longer iPhones but AI servers—mirroring Taiwan’s wider pivot from smartphones to AI infrastructure.
Financial Times reports that tech giants including Meta, Alphabet and Nvidia have boosted CEO security spending to over $45mn in 2024, amid rising threats and political hostility towards executives.
Air Canada flight attendants have gone on strike over pay, grounding planes and leaving more than 100,000 passengers stranded.

health & environment

New York Times has a good read on how scientists are rethinking the link between blue light and poor sleep, with research suggesting it may not be the screens themselves keeping us awake.

meanwhile, in the world

Hamas says it has accepted a new ceasefire plan put forward by Qatar and Egypt, as mediators race to revive talks before Israel launches a major assault on Gaza City.
BBC lay witness to a terrifying attack by Israeli settlers on a Palestinian farm in the West Bank.
Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy are poised for their first peace summit since the war began, after Donald Trump’s talks with European leaders and a call with Putin raised hopes of a breakthrough.
Government papers accidentally left in an Alaskan hotel have revealed sensitive details of Donald Trump’s August summit with Vladimir Putin, including meeting times and staff contacts.
The UK’s first transgender judge, Victoria McCloud, has taken Britain to the European court of human rights, arguing the supreme court denied her a fair trial in its ruling on biological sex.
The Guardian has a good read on how Mexico’s 'historic' welfare policies under former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador lifted 13.4 million people out of poverty.
MSNBC will rebrand as My Source News Opinion World (MS NOW) as it spins off from NBCUniversal and looks to carve out its own identity.

meanwhile, in India

Indian Express has an explainer on Uttarakhand’s new anti-conversion Bill—pushing longer jail terms and taking cues from Uttar Pradesh, in line with the BJP’s larger political agenda.
The Guwahati Crime Branch has summoned The Wire’s Siddharth Varadarajan and Karan Thapar under fresh FIR charges, but without sharing details of the case—on the same day the Supreme Court shielded Varadarajan from coercive action in a separate Morigaon FIR.
Latest state to join the SIR bandwagon is Odisha, where the Election Commission will launch a revision of electoral rolls next month—covering 45,000 booths.
The Bombay High Court has asked the Attorney General to respond to a petition by two men seeking recognition of same-sex couples as “spouses” under the Income Tax Act.
The Print has an in-depth report on how India’s aviation sector has a ‘safety culture’ problem—nearly half of crash inquiries flag operator lapses, two-thirds cite pilot decisions, and experts say a reporting culture barely exists.
Researchers at IIT Madras say aerosols from north India drift down to Chennai and the southeast coast twice or thrice a month between December and March, carried by wind patterns that raise PM2.5 levels in the region.
IIT Kharagpur researchers say crime is higher in Indian cities where satellite maps show brightly lit wealthy areas sitting next to darker, poorer neighbourhoods, with a 1% rise in inequality linked to a 0.5% jump in offences.

Three horror things to see

One: Spain, Portugal and Greece are witnessing active wildfires that are considered to be “especially serious”—one of the worst seen ever. The reason: A heat wave caused due to climate change. Certain regions in Spain touched 43°C, and the current wave is “the third-longest since 1975.” Plus, “the likelihood of such abnormally high temperatures” has increased going forward. In Spain, the fires have burned land equivalent to the largest annual amount in the country since 2006. What’s worse: “Officials warned that the situation could quickly worsen.” The death toll: eight. The video below captures the intensity of the devastation. (New York Times)

Two: Usually, the dog is the first to die in a horror movie but in ‘Good Boy’—he is the hero. The 73-minute horror movie marks the debut for director Ben Leonberg who cast his own good boy, Indy, as the main actor. The plot is centred on Indy saving his human parent Todd from getting dragged down to hell in a haunted house. Don’t worry, the dog survives. It is slated for October 3. See the chilling trailer below. (Hollywood Reporter)

Three: ’Keeper’ is directed by Osgood Perkins, who enjoyed critical acclaim and box office success with ‘Longlegs’ and ‘The Monkey’. Tatiana Maslany stars as a woman trapped in a haunted cabin, as a planned anniversary getaway with her husband turns into a nightmare. The film is slated to release on November 14. Check out the trailer below. (IndieWire)