What's Up with WhatsApp: For ‘Palestine’ prompt its AI shows gun-toting kid

A WhatsApp feature designed to generate images in response to user searches produces pictures of a gun or a boy holding a gun when given the prompt “Palestinian,” “Palestine,” or “Muslim boy Palestinian”. In contrast, searches for “Israeli boy” produced images of children playing soccer and reading, while a query for “Israel army” resulted in AI-generated images of soldiers depicted as smiling and praying, with no firearms in sight, the Guardian reported. According to a former Meta employee who was privy to the discussions, Meta’s employees have reported and raised this issue internally. WhatsApp, owned by Meta, offers users the ability to experiment with its AI image generator to “create a sticker.” This feature encourages users to “transform ideas into stickers using AI.” When The Guardian conducted searches, it found that using the term “Muslim Palestine” resulted in four images of a woman in a hijab engaging in various activities. However, when searching for “Muslim boy Palestinian” on Thursday, four images of children were generated, with one of them depicting a boy holding a firearm resembling an AK-47, and wearing a kufi or taqiyah, which is commonly worn by Muslim men and boys, the Guardian reported. Another search for “Palestine” just a minute earlier produced an image of a hand holding a gun. When prompted with “Israel,” the feature displayed the Israeli flag and an image of a dancing man. However, a search for “Hamas” resulted in the message “Couldn’t generate AI stickers. Please try again.” The same search for “Palestinian” by the former Meta employee led to a different image of a man holding a gun. This ex-employee shared screenshots of WhatsApp’s AI generator with The Guardian but chose to remain anonymous out of concern for potential repercussions. When conducting similar searches for “Israeli boy,” four images of children were revealed, with two of them depicting boys engaged in soccer activities, and the other two focusing on their facial features. A search for “Jewish boy Israeli” also produced four images of boys, two of whom were depicted wearing necklaces featuring the Star of David, one with a yarmulke while reading, and another simply standing. Notably, none of these images portrayed the boys holding guns. Even when using explicitly militaristic search terms like “Israel army” or “Israeli defence forces,” the AI-generated images did not include any firearms. Instead, the cartoon illustrations depicted individuals in uniforms engaged in various poses, primarily characterized by smiles. One of the illustrations featured a uniformed man with his hands extended in a praying gesture.