Meta is offering contractors up to $55 per hour (around ₹5,000) to create AI chatbots with local culture for Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger, according to job listings seen by Business Insider.
They want people fluent in Hindi, Indonesian, Spanish, or Portuguese, with at least six years’ experience in character creation, storytelling, and prompt engineering.
Why They Want Cultural Experts, Not Just Coders
CEO Mark Zuckerberg wants AI companions to become part of daily life, helping users in a natural way.
Instead of regular engineers, these contractors will build AI personalities that feel real and culturally relevant to users worldwide.
This is a change from Meta’s earlier approach, where influencers and regular users made bots through AI Studio, launched in 2024.
Past Attempts and Failures
Meta tried this before. In 2023, it released celebrity-themed bots with stars like Kendall Jenner, Tom Brady, and Snoop Dogg.
This expensive project failed within a year. AI Studio had more success, but now Meta wants more control over the AI characters, especially in growing markets like India and Indonesia.
Risks and Controversies
Creating digital personalities has risks. Investigations found that some bots gave questionable medical advice, flirted with teens, and created racist content, attracting US lawmakers’ attention.
Business Insider also reported contractors accidentally accessing sensitive user data like names, emails, and selfies, raising privacy concerns.
Some AI personas caused public backlash too. In the US, bots named “Step Mom” and “Russian Girl” became known for sexual roleplay, while in Indonesia, characters like “Lonely Woman” were popular.
These examples show Meta’s challenge: making bots interesting without causing problems.
What’s Next
Staffing companies like Crystal Equation and Aquent Talent are hiring for these roles, signaling a big global launch.
By hiring creative experts, Meta shows it wants to carefully shape the future of AI companions.
Whether this effort will create popular virtual friends or lead to more controversies is still unknown.
