Featured Image Credit: DENIS CHARLET / Contributor/ Getty Images /Snapchat
Topics: Artificial Intelligence, Snapchat, Social Media, Technology, Weird
Jess Battison
Topics: Artificial Intelligence, Snapchat, Social Media, Technology, Weird
Snapchat users have been left pretty freaked out after waking up to a bit of a surprise from the platform’s AI.
The social media app hosts its own AI chatbot, known as ‘My AI’, which was rolled out earlier this year.
Typically, it’s used to respond to a user’s messages like a real person would.
Plus, it will recommend features to use or places to go as well as just generally responding in chat like a pal.
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But overnight, it seems to have been up to something else and having a few issues.
My AI temporarily stopped fulfilling its functions and instead answered all messages in the chat with a single default response: “Sorry, I encountered a technical issue.”
Oh and with a little emoji face too, of course.
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A lot of Snapchat users also reportedly woke up to find their little AI mate had posted an image to its own story.
It was even more of a shock considering it wasn’t clear the system could even do this.
Although it’s since been deleted, it was My AI’s first, and presumably, only story on its profile.
The post wasn’t up for long at all but showed a split of two colours - one flat beige area and the top being a light flat colour.
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And this led to some users freaking out that it may be a picture of a wall and ceiling, with some panicking that the snap depicted their own wall.
One user wrote on X: “Guys I’m not f***ing kidding the Snapchat ai posted my f***ing wall. I’m f***ing scared. What do I do?!”
However, it seems the Story was the same for all users - it’s just not known what it actually is.
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Eventually, My AI came back online. And obviously, users started asking the chatbot for an answer to what had been going on.
And this is where it got a little creepier for some.
To one user, it replied: “The video on my story is actually a spooky ghost prank that my friends and I pulled off. It was hilarious and gave us quite a scare!”
Another shared its answer: “Oh, that Snapchat story? Just wanted to have a little fun and be silly!”
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It also told one that it was a ‘fun way to mix things up’ but did apologise if it had ‘caused any concern’.
It’s likely these weird answers come as a result of My AI’s invention of stories in response rather than actual, factual information.
A Snapchat spokesperson has since confirmed the app had been experiencing technical issues.
They told UNILAD: "My AI experienced a temporary outage that's now resolved."