If you are a Snapchat user you may have noticed a new “friend” appear in your friends list. In fact, this friend pinned itself to the top of your friends list and won’t budge, trying to cement itself as you new BFF. Well, it appears that is what Snapchat are hoping. This new feature is called My AI, an artificial intelligence driven chatbot.

According to Snapchat’s website, “My AI is an experimental, friendly, chatbot currently available to Snapchatters. My AI is designed to be a personal sidekick to each Snapchatter who chats with it. In a chat conversation, My AI can answer a burning trivia question, offer advice on the perfect gift for your BFF’s birthday, help plan a hiking trip for a long weekend, suggest what to make for dinner. My AI is there to help and to connect you more deeply to the people and things you care about most. You can give My AI a nickname and tell it about your likes (and dislikes!)”.

Until approximately a week ago, My AI was only available to Snapchat+ subscribers. After updating to the most recent version of the app, we are seeing that it is now freely available. Not only that, it has made itself present on the app without any form of enablement or permission. It is somewhat concerning that these layers of conversational AI are being implemented into apps that are targeted at and have high engagement from young people. 

The underlying technology driving My AI is ChatGPT, the AI system that has recently swept the world. 

Here is an interesting read on My AI.

My key takeaways from the article are:

1. Although ChatGPT driven, much of the functionality has been removed (so My AI will try not to do a student’s homework, but it can be tricked).
2. The design of My AI suggests that it is meant to be another friend inside of Snapchat for you to hang out with. It is given somewhat of a pseudo persona and continues to attempt engagement in the conversation.
3. The potential for this AI to be emotionally manipulative. 

Probably the most important thing to note for anyone, particularly young people, that stumble upon My AI, from the article above:

"While My AI is designed to avoid biased, incorrect, harmful, or misleading information, mistakes may occur".

Certainly, many of our students have commented on their interactions with My AI, both positive and negative.

As a parent or guardian, please be aware that if your daughter is using Snapchat it is likely they will have access to My AI (or whatever name they have given it).

Owen Flattery
Head of Innovation and Entrepreneurship