Snapchat Dismisses AI Chatbot's Freaky Antics As A Glitch But Are You Buying It?

My AI launched a few months ago as Snapchat's new AI-powered chatbot. The company says that over 150 million people have sent over 10 billion messages to My AI, making it one of the most used consumer chatbots available. However, the chatbot which is meant to lend a hand to users in times of need, seemed to take on a mind of its own as it posted to its own Story and then refused to answer any questions afterward. The one-second post caused alarmed users to take to social media in a state of confusion as to what was going on.

Snapchat users posted disconcerting social media posts that included one remarking, "My Snapchat AI posted a random 1-second story and isn't replying to me AND IM FREAKED OUT," as well as another who jokingly posted, "It went sentient".

My AI was launched in order to foster creativity and connection with friends while learning more about a friend's interests and favorite subjects. Conversations with the chatbot have ranged from art and design inspiration to conversations looking for tips about how to plan the perfect birthday party. So, when the chatbot posted the two-toned image to its Story and then stopped responding, some users were left wondering if My AI had indeed gone rogue.

Adding to the confusion was the image that some believed to be a picture of their own ceiling. @matthewesp posted, "Did Snapchat Ai just add a picture of my wall/ceiling to their Snapchat story?"

Snap, the parent company of Snapchat, stated the issue was just a "glitch" and that it had been fixed shortly after the onslaught of social media posts about the situation began. A spokesperson for the company stated in an interview, "My AI experienced a temporary outage that's now resolved."

The incident does raise the question of why My AI was able to post a Story, as a spokesperson reported to TechCrunch that the chatbot doesn't even have the Stories feature yet. It is possible that the company is working on adding the feature at a later date and the "glitch" was simply the chatbot using it before it was supposed to. However, nothing has been confirmed by Snap or Snapchat as of yet.

Whatever may have caused My AI to go awry yesterday, the incident has caused more than a few to search for how to delete Snapchat, according to Google Trends data. Perhaps just the notion of an AI chatbot going sentient was enough to scare some away from the technology.