On Tuesday night, Snapchat’s AI-powered chatbot, known as “My AI,” shocked users when it abruptly released a live update on users’ stories and stopped replying to messages.
A brief about the AI chatbot for Snapchat appeared to “come to life” and began posting stories to users’ profiles
My AI, which is powered by the well-known AI chatbot platform ChatGPT, frequently assists users by making suggestions, responding to their questions, and having discussions with them. But it was unexpected when the chatbot recently posted a live Story, visible to all Snapchat users, with a brief video of what appeared to be a wall.
Due to a brief failure, the bot responded to all queries by saying, “Apologies, I ran into a technical issue.”
Fans of the app instantly shared their worries on social networking sites. Why does My AI have a video of their home’s wall and ceiling as a story, wondered one user? This is really strange and unsettling. A different person, whose communications were dismissed by the tool, jokingly observed, “Even a robot seems to be too busy for me.”
In the end, Snapchat’s goal was not to make its My AI feature seem more realistic. The corporation emphasized to CNN the next day that a glitch was to blame for the occurrence. “My AI experienced a temporary outage that is now resolved,” a spokeswoman said.
The incident brought to light the concerns that many people have about the possible dangers of artificial intelligence. Parents have criticized this function since its April release, but it has also drawn criticism from some Snapchat users who were troubled by privacy concerns, disturbing interactions, and the inability to remove the feature from their chat feed without upgrading to a premium plan.
The AI chatbot from Snapchat is unique from several other AI tools in a number of ways. Users can give the chatbot a unique name, design a unique Bitmoji avatar for it, and use it in interactions with friends. Therefore, compared to visiting ChatGPT’s website, chatting with Snapchat’s chatbot may feel less transactional, potentially hiding the fact that the user is communicating with a computer.
Even if some people might find use for this service, the mixed response highlights the difficulties that businesses have when integrating new generative AI technology into their products, particularly on platforms like Snapchat that cater primarily to younger users.
When OpenAI allowed outside companies access to ChatGPT, Snapchat was one of the early launch partners.
