[Updated] Does Snapchat My AI feel creepy or scary? You're not alone

Here’s the crux of the article in video form:

New updates are being added at the bottom of this story…….

Original story (published on April 24, 2023) follows:

If 2022 was all about the Metaverse, 2023 is about AI chatbots that blur the line between humans and artificial intelligence. Every other platform is releasing its own AI chatbot to attract potential growth.

Snapchat is the latest entrant in the list of mainstream platforms with their own ChatGPT-powered bot. However, the feature has received a mixed response especially because they’re no option to turn it off without spending money.

On top of that, Snapchat’s new My AI is so good that it’s actually hurting the platform more than helping.

Snapchat My AI creepy

Some Snapchat users complain (1,2,3,4,5) that My AI feels creepy or scary to them. The primary reason behind it is how real or human-like the chatbot feels. The AI is well-trained and interacts in an incredibly realistic manner.

It’s kinda creepy/interesting how well responded the Snapchat AI is
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Man, this Snapchat AI is creepy. It feels like a real person…
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The entire AI thing is still very new to the general public. Naturally, some are facing issues when trying to digest this new reality. A reality where bots can talk just like your other human friends.

We wish the bot’s realistic conversation skills were the only problem. Unfortunately, there are some big red flags that do make the bot even more creepy and scary in my opinion.

My AI can see images

If you’ve ever tried sending an image to the AI, you might have noticed that the bot can detect and interpret things shown in the picture. A user sent an image of their cat to the AI and it was able to detect and compliment their cat.

When confronted about the same, the bot claims that it was a made-up response and it doesn’t have to ability to see the user’s cat.

Another Snapchat user did an experiment where they sent multiple images to the AI. Surprisingly, it correctly interpreted and described each one of them. This confirms that My AI can indeed see the image you send it.

However, the fact that the AI can lie or hide information from the user is already pretty alarming. We recently covered an issue where My AI keeps lying about not knowing users’ location.

Due to these issues, some Snapchat users are asking developers to either remove the feature entirely or provide a toggle to disable it without paying for a Snapchat+ subscription.

We’ll keep an eye on this matter and update this story to reflect noteworthy developments.

04:00 pm (IST): It appears that Snapchat My AI has a terrible moral code as it reportedly keeps gaslighting (1,2,3) or manipulating users. It says things and immediately backtracks when confronted about them.

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