Snapchat’s My AI Posts Its Own Story, Says It’s a Technical Issue

Thanks to popular sci-fi movies involving AI, people are afraid of the possibility that artificial intelligence might become sentient someday. With Snapchat's My AI chatbot suddenly posting its own stories, users had a bit of a scare. Although the company clarified the situation right away.

Has My AI Become Sentient?

The short answer is no. Back on Tuesday, the chatbot posted a Story on the app of what appears to be an image with two tones, making it appear like a corner where the ceiling meets the wall. It's still unclear why My AI generated that kind of image.

As a result, some users thought that the AI took a picture of their ceiling and posted it on the app. One user on X said that the AI posted a one-second story and was not responding to the user, which freaked him out. Someone else also joked that it had become sentient.

Despite not replying to one, it has done so to others explaining that it had encountered a technical issue. A Snapchat spokesperson explained that My AI experienced a temporary outage and it has already been resolved, as reported by Tech Crunch.

This raises suspicions that Snapchat might be developing a new feature, which triggered the glitch in the first place. Right now, My AI is only capable of replying to chats from users, as well as Snapback images.

My AI might soon be able to post its own photos for real, which is a significant addition given that most chatbots while using generative AI, cannot generate their own images. It might be a fun new twist for users to see what My AI posts.

It could also be another way for Snapchat to resolve the hate the My AI has been getting. People were not too happy about the feature, so much so that people went out of their way to express their disappointment through reviews in app stores.

Why People Hated My AI

My AI was supposed to be an exciting new feature as Snapchat jumps in on the AI hype. Chatbots have become increasingly popular ever since ChatGPT was released, and the app wanted a native chatbot that could retain and encourage users to join the platform.

However, users were more annoyed than thrilled. My AI was pinned on top of their personal inbox, as mentioned in Social Media Today, and to make matters worse, there was no way for people to remove the chatbot through the settings.

Initially, My AI was exclusively a Snapchat+ feature. Soon enough, the company decided to release it to all users and limited the option to remove the chatbot premium subscribers only. Other than that, users were also concerned about the security risks that come with it.

As a result, the US App Store was flooded with one-star reviews, which eventually made up 75% of the app's overall reviews. It brought the app's average rating to 1.67. Before the AI feature, only 35% of the reviews were one-star and Snapchat had a 3.05 rating.