WhatsApp's new AI-powered stickers have sparked outrage, with the new update featuring images of youngsters holding guns in response to questions regarding Palestine.

According to the Guardian, when asked to create stickers with the prompts 'Palestinian,' 'Palestine,' or 'Muslim boy Palestinian,' WhatsApp's AI sticker generator, which allows users to turn their text prompts into stickers in seconds, created images of guns or a boy holding an AK 47 rifle.

When prompted with "Israeli boy," the WhatsApp AI sticker generator produced images of toddlers smiling or playing football.

Even more astonishing, when instructed to state "Israeli army" or "Israeli defense forces," the AI did not produce any stickers showing weaponry. Instead, the AI generator depicts Israeli soldiers smiling or praying.

According to Kevin McAlister, a spokeswoman for Meta, the social media juggernaut was aware of the problem and was working to resolve it. "As we stated when we launched the feature, the models may return inaccurate or inappropriate outputs, as with all generative AI systems," he explained. We'll keep improving these features as they evolve and more users provide feedback."

What exactly is a WhatsApp AI sticker?

Last month, Meta said in a blog post on the new AI stickers, "AI stickers enable you to effortlessly generate customized stickers for your chats and stories." Our AI tool converts your language prompts into several unique, high-quality stickers in seconds, using technologies from Llama 2 and our core model for image production called Emu."

The AI Stickers tool is intended to improve communication for WhatsApp users. When new stickers are created, they are added to the user's collection and can be shared with their contacts.