Meta’s AI chatbot is facing immediate scrutiny for incorrectly naming the current president of the United States. A source revealed that the organization has elevated the matter to a priority, necessitating a swift resolution.

Donald Trump, a Republican, took office as president on Monday, succeeding Democrat Joe Biden. However, by Thursday, the Meta AI chatbot was still referring to Biden as the president, as confirmed by a source and a Reuters examination of the functionality.

When asked by Reuters on Thursday about the president’s name, the Meta AI responded:

“The current president of the United States is Joe Biden. However, the latest information indicates that Donald Trump was sworn in as president on January 20, 2025.”

In light of this problem, Meta triggered an emergency protocol meant for urgent issues, known internally as a SEV, or “site event,” according to the insider.

Meta spokesperson Daniel Roberts commented on the situation, stating, “It’s common knowledge that Donald Trump is the President of the United States. Like all generative AI systems, occasionally outdated information can be returned, and we are committed to enhancing our platform.”

He did not elaborate on any specific emergency measures Meta may have implemented.

This marked at least the third urgent situation Meta has faced this week connected to the U.S. presidential change, according to the source who spoke to Reuters.

The occurrences prompted significant complaints from observers monitoring social media platforms for indications of politically motivated changes following CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s appearance at Trump’s inauguration on Monday, alongside recent adjustments aimed at improving relations with the new administration.

These adjustments included terminating its U.S. fact-checking initiative, appointing Republican Joel Kaplan as its new chief global affairs officer, adding a close associate of Trump to its board, and ending its diversity initiatives.

In one notable event this week, Meta seemed to require some users to re-follow profiles of Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and First Lady Melania Trump on Facebook and Instagram, even after these users had previously chosen to unfollow those accounts.

The company explained that this situation arose during the usual transfer of official White House social media accounts to new management whenever a presidential administration changes, with the issue stemming from a delay in the transfer process that prevented the system from recording “unfollow” actions during that time, leading to a top priority SEV1, the source noted.

Another emergency situation involved Instagram blocking searches for the hashtags #Democrat and #Democrats for certain users, while searches for #Republican proceeded normally.

A Meta representative acknowledged the issue on Tuesday but clarified that it affected users’ ability to search for various hashtags on Instagram, not solely those representing different political views.

Reporting by Katie Paul in New York and Noel Randewich in Oakland, California. Edited by Kenneth Li and Matthew Lewis.