Snapchat boss wary of users treating chatbot My AI as a friend

Social network Snapchat has given all its users, many of whom are teenagers, free access to a ChatGPT-powered bot called My AI, in an erosion of social media’s traditional reliance on user- generated content.

Snapchat co-founder and chief executive Evan Spiegel hopes users will not form quasi-relationships with the chatbot but use it as a creative tool, despite people developing personal attachments to other artificial intelligence tools.

Google engineer Blake Lemoine was sacked from the company last year after coming to believe that a bot he was working on had feelings. And a bot called Replika, which was designed to simulate personal connection, maintained “relationships” with users for years until its settings were changed in a 2023 software update.

Asked last week, whether users might start to refer to the AI tool by a name and integrate it into group conversations, where it will respond to user prompts like they would a friend, Spiegel said: “I think that’s possible.”

“Although I worry a little bit about that, frankly, just the user experience that you’re describing. I think one of the things that’s really valuable about [instructing the bot to answer a question via] @ mentions is that My AI only participates when you want it to.”

He said My AI worked better as a “creative tool”.

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Snapchat’s bot is not designed to mimic a human relationship and was first announced in February for members of Snapchat’s subscriber program. It has had several safety features integrated since, including responses tailored to a user’s age, and a ban on derogatory discussions or those around illegal activity.

In an April media release, Snapchat said that only 0.01 per cent of My AI’s responses had failed to conform with its rules. Parents can also see information on their child’s use of My AI on the app. Figures from Snapchat claim that 90 per cent of 13-to-24 year olds in Australia use its app.

Social network Snapchat has given all its users, many of whom are teenagers, free access to a ChatGPT-powered bot called My AI, in an erosion of social media’s traditional reliance on user- generated content.

Snapchat co-founder and chief executive Evan Spiegel hopes users will not form quasi-relationships with the chatbot but use it as a creative tool, despite people developing personal attachments to other artificial intelligence tools.

Google engineer Blake Lemoine was sacked from the company last year after coming to believe that a bot he was working on had feelings. And a bot called Replika, which was designed to simulate personal connection, maintained “relationships” with users for years until its settings were changed in a 2023 software update.

Asked last week, whether users might start to refer to the AI tool by a name and integrate it into group conversations, where it will respond to user prompts like they would a friend, Spiegel said: “I think that’s possible.”

“Although I worry a little bit about that, frankly, just the user experience that you’re describing. I think one of the things that’s really valuable about [instructing the bot to answer a question via] @ mentions is that My AI only participates when you want it to.”

He said My AI worked better as a “creative tool”.

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Snapchat’s bot is not designed to mimic a human relationship and was first announced in February for members of Snapchat’s subscriber program. It has had several safety features integrated since, including responses tailored to a user’s age, and a ban on derogatory discussions or those around illegal activity.

In an April media release, Snapchat said that only 0.01 per cent of My AI’s responses had failed to conform with its rules. Parents can also see information on their child’s use of My AI on the app. Figures from Snapchat claim that 90 per cent of 13-to-24 year olds in Australia use its app.