Snap has started expanding its AI chatbot globally, called My AI (Add My AI as Friend), announced at their annual developer conference. Previously, it was limited to Snapchat+ users, but now it will be available for everyone to use. This AI is powered by OpenAI’s ChatGPT, the same artificial model that powers Microsoft Bing. Since it is trained on a large dataset of text and code, it can help you with generating text, translating languages, and creating content.
It is designed to make users more creative and productive
My AI is able to assist you with conversing about a variety of topics, planning events, finding information, creating content, and more, such as generating images and text and translating language in other informational ways.
Currently, there are about 750 million Snapchat users, and among those, 3 million are Snapchat+ users. Snap launched My AI on February 27th of this year. Since then, the company has optimized it for a more personalized and engaging experience. You may find My AI to become a more integral part of Snapchat. With the recent update, you can create a look and name for My AI using a custom Bitmoji avatar and also tag My AI in a group by using “@MyAI” to get help from My AI with tasks like planning events, making decisions, or keeping a conversation.
On top of this, My AI can also recommend AR filters on Snapchat’s camera or place, which is a great way to help users discover new things. More natural ways to communicate with the bot are coming, which could be more useful and fun to use. Rival companies like Google and Microsoft are finding ways to help people integrate AI into their search engines, while Snap is working toward making it more creative.
Generative Snap Back, Integrated AI to Snapchat
Furthermore, My AI can now suggest place recommendations, relevant lenses, chat replies, and family controls to My AI. My AI could be a potential major asset for Snap’s advertising business, where it could target more effectively and create a more engaging ad experience, and measure the effectiveness of ads more accurately. Snap’s My AI was a bit misbehaved when it was first released, but the company addressed the issue, and it may prevent future incidents. It’s important for users to be aware of the risks associated with generative AI bots and what they’ve been sharing, and be aware that bots may not always be accurate or truthful.
The company says that most of the My AI feedback has been positive, which will make it a more valuable tool for users. At the same time, it’s also important to balance between anthropomorphizing chatbots and making it clear that they are not human. AI shouldn’t be able to replace human relationships, even if AI chatbots should be able to understand and respond to human emotions. Chatbots are not human, and users should not develop unrealistic expectations about what chatbots can do for them.
Snap is working on safety controls and is temporarily restricting users’ access to My AI
This isn’t about one bad tech company. This is the cost of the “Race to Recklessness.”
— Tristan Harris (@tristanharris) March 10, 2023
Every tech platform is rapidly being forced to integrate AI agents—Bing, Office, Snap, Slack—because if they don’t, they lose to competitors.
But our children cannot be collateral damage.
Additionally, Snapchat’s My AI is expanding to offer more services. It can answer factual questions, request creative content, and can go back and forth in conversations with users. You can also add this to a group chat to generate AI-generated images in response to photos. Now it has age-appropriate and new tools for creators who use the platform to go viral and allows creators to run a public page at the same time as posting privately for friends and family.
Snap is trying hard to differentiate itself from competitors by focusing on AI for private communication and by offering a wide variety of creator tools. Snap is expected to make its creator monetization program more pleasing to creators. For this, users need to have more than 50,000 followers and 25 million views, and at least 10 public posts a month. This will attract more new users and retain top talent.
