Here's why My AI on Snapchat was behaving unexpectedly
What's the story
Snapchat users were alarmed when My AI unexpectedly posted a Story to its profile. It featured a seemingly innocuous video of a wall or ceiling.
Instead of responding to user inquiries as usual, the AI also began ignoring questions and providing generic responses like "doesn't understand" or "experienced a technical issue."
This sparked speculation that My AI had evolved and gained sentience.
Details
Snap attributed the issue to a temporary outage
Snap attributed the incident to a temporary outage, which has been fixed since then.
Launched globally earlier this year, the My AI chatbot is designed to provide helpful assistance by responding to users' messages and Snaps.
The AI, which is pinned atop users' chat feeds, only interacts when prompted and can be ignored without affecting the overall user experience.
Twitter Post
My AI freaked out Snapchat users with a Story
Anyone else’s Snapchat My AI post to their story??? pic.twitter.com/8DNAKe1JXI
— Landon Reinhardt (@landonian87) August 16, 2023
What Next?
My AI denied posting a Story when asked later
Once back online, users questioned My AI about the strange Story, but the chatbot insisted it hadn't posted one, as it's incapable of doing so.
This incident underscores the fact that AI, while helpful, is still software and code with inherent limitations. As such, users should exercise caution and avoid relying on AI for critical tasks.
Twitter Post
The AI denied any wrongdoing
#snapchat #snapchatAI My Snapchat AI after I just interrogated it about its story: pic.twitter.com/Awu3TWYxwA
— Leo (@Leo46289119) August 16, 2023