On Tuesday, August 15 Snapchat’s AI chatbot seemed to have gone rogue. Snapchat users experienced a “glitch,”as the Snapchat team called it. The bot posted a live update to its story snd stopped responding to messages. The Snapchat My AI feature, which is powered by the AI chatbot tool ChatGPT, is programed to answer questions, have conversations with users and offer suggestions, along with much more (businesstoday.in).
Posting a live story for all Snapchat users to see was definitely a new feature, and one that brought concern for many users. The story posted was a short video of a wall and ceiling. Many users were left with an unsettling feeling about the situation and began to think the AI bot had become self aware.
“I thought the glitch was so weird and it made me think someone hacked it,” explained sophomore Maria Diaz.
A spokesperson from Snap Inc. released a statement confirming that the issue was just a glitch.
“My AI experienced a temporary outage that’s now resolved,” according to the statement Snap gave to CNN. Snapchat never provided a thorough explanation for what actually happened; the most they gave was that “it was a glitch,” and this clearly didn’t provide comfort for users.
After all, if an AI robot that is only programmed to speak with users is able to post a photo, who knows what else it can do? This instance adds fuel to the growing concerns that while AI is as innovative as it is exciting, there are so many unknowns as well.
The fear this situation instilled in users was seen clearly. For instance, “how to delete Snapchat” and “how to remove My AI” searches increased by 488% worldwide (yahoo.com). The My AI concept introduced unknown technology to Snapchat users. Although it may have been created with the intentions of doing good, technology in its early stages can still be confusing and troublesome.