Meta says it has resolved a problem that allowed hackers to trick its AI assistant into granting access to other users’ accounts, including high-profile individuals, in line with multiple media reports.
404 Media and The Guardian say hackers used the tactic to focus on Barack Obama’s White House account, beauty retailer Sephora and the U.S. Space Force chief master sergeant, John Bentivegna.
Regular users also reported similar takeovers on X, even sharing screen-recorded videos of conversations with Meta’s AI chatbot detailing how the hacks were executed.
One video posted on X appears to point out a hacker asking Meta’s AI assistant to link their account to a brand new email address, bypassing two-factor authentication.
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The bot responds that a verification code has been sent to the brand new email address and asks the hacker to enter it within the chat. Once the hacker does so, an option appears allowing them to reset the hacked user’s password.
“This issue has been resolved and we’re securing impacted accounts,” Meta said in a press release to Global News on Tuesday.
The breach comes as Meta undergoes an operational shift that may see human roles transferred to AI and a rise in using tech-forward features across its platforms, including customer support on Instagram and Facebook.
The corporate’s chatbot customer support feature, launched last yr, will proceed to be updated over time, in line with a March update from the tech giant.
Meta said in the discharge that its AI chatbot is about up for users to report scams, impersonation accounts or problematic content and to administer privacy, reset passwords, and update profile settings.
Last yr, Meta reported “positive results” from changes to the service, which it said reduced mistakes and focused on regulating illegal and severe content across all Meta platforms, including terrorism, child exploitation, drugs, fraud and scams.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg arrives for a landmark trial over whether social media platforms deliberately addict and harm children, Feb. 18, 2026, in Los Angeles.
AP Photo/Ryan Sun
The AI systems will “eventually give you the option to tackle work that’s higher suited to technology, like repetitive reviews of graphic content or areas where adversarial actors are consistently changing their tactics, reminiscent of with illicit drug sales or scams,” the March release noted, before adding that Meta will “still have people who review content.”
In January, tons of of Meta staff were laid off in its Reality Labs division because the tech giant shifted its focus from metaverse products to AI. In late May, Reuters reported that CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a company-wide memo that the corporate was not planning any further layoffs for 2026.
He made the announcement on the identical day the Facebook owner carried out a massive restructuring of the corporate, shedding 10 per cent of its workforce globally and transferring 7,000 other employees to recent initiatives related to AI workflows.
— With files from Reuters
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