The artificial intelligence chatbot for Snapchat posted a live update to its profile on Tuesday night and stopped responding to messages, alarming users.
The Snapchat My AI feature — which is powered by the viral AI chatbot tool ChatGPT — typically offers recommendations, answers questions and converses with users. However, publishing a live Story (a brief video of what appeared to be a wall) for all Snapchat users to see was new because only its human users typically have access to that feature.
On social media, the app’s users expressed their worries right away. One user questioned, “Why does My AI have a video of the wall and ceiling in their house as their story?”. “This is very weird and honestly unsettling.”
Another user wrote, “Even a robot ain’t got time for me”, after the tool ignored his messages.
In actuality, Snapchat wasn’t trying to make its My AI tool even more realistic. It was a glitch, the business informed CNN on Wednesday. According to a spokesperson, “My AI experienced a temporary outage that’s now resolved”.
However, the negative response brought to light the widespread apprehensions about the dangers of artificial intelligence.
Parents and some Snapchat users have criticized the tool since its April release because of privacy concerns, “creepy” exchanges, and the inability to remove it from their chat feeds unless paying a premium subscription.
The Snapchat chatbot differs significantly from other AI tools in that users can create a unique Bitmoji avatar for it, change its name, and use it in conversations with friends. The end result is that conversing with Snapchat’s chatbot may feel less transactional than going to ChatGPT’s website. It might also be less obvious that you are conversing with a computer.
Although some users may find value in the tool, the mixed response showed the difficulties businesses may encounter when integrating new generative AI technology into their products, especially in services like Snapchat, whose users tend to be younger.
When OpenAI granted access to ChatGPT to outside companies, Snapchat was one of the first launch partners. Many more are anticipated to follow.
Source-CNN
