At the 2023 Snap Partner Summit, Snapchat announced it will be rolling out My AI – an AI-powered chatbot – free to Snapchatters globally with a raft of brand-new features.
Snapchat+ subscribers have already been using the new feature, with nearly 2 million chat messages sent per day. 99.5% of My AI responses conform to Snapchat’s community guidelines.
Since its launch, Snapchat has improved My AI by programming it to adhere to our community guidelines to help protect against responses that could be inappropriate or harmful.
Evan Spiegel, chief executive officer of Snapchat, said: “We’ve been applying our safety by design approach to building My AI, a new chatbot we recently introduced for Snapchat+ subscribers.
“With My AI we’re making conversational artificial intelligence useful and enjoyable for our community while also working to establish guardrails to help keep our community safe.”
Other features of My AI include:
• Snapchat Recommendations: My AI surfaces place recommendations from the Snap Map and suggests relevant Lenses. For example, users can ask My AI to suggest weekend activities for their family or get the perfect Lens recommendation to wish a friend a happy birthday.
• Share Snaps with My AI: Users can send Snaps to My AI and receive a chat reply.
• Watch It Snap You Back: With over 55,000 Snaps created on Snapchat every second on average, Snapping is a natural way that the community stays in touch. Soon Snapchat+ subscribers will be able to Snap My AI and get a unique generative Snap back that keeps the visual conversation going.
Among the new features, users can personalise My AI with thousands of unique Bitmoji variations, give it a name and start chatting. Snapchatters can also bring My AI into conversations with friends by mentioning the AI and asking questions on behalf of the group.
“Unlike conversations with friends and family that are deleted by default, conversations with My AI are stored and reviewed to improve the product experience. That helps us learn how My AI is being used and how we can make it better,” Spiegel said.
Additionally, Snapchat has implemented a new age signal using a Snapchatter’s birthdate, so the chatbot will consistently take their age into consideration and added additional moderation technology, which will allow Snapchat to assess the severity of potentially harmful content and temporarily restrict Snapchatters’ access to My AI if they misuse the service.
Spiegel noted that My AI is far from perfect but that Snapchat has made plenty of progress. He said: “For example, 99.5% percent of My AI responses conform to our community guidelines.
“We’ve also worked to incorporate the age of each Snapchatter when they are communicating with My AI to help make sure their interactions are age-appropriate.
“Needless to say, our community loves My AI, with Snapchat+ subscribers sending nearly 2 million chats per day. It has been so fun watching people learn more about the world through conversation, asking My AI about movies, sports, games, and pets.
Snapchat also is preparing to incorporate My AI into the in-app parental tool, Family Centre, which will allow caregivers to see if their teens are chatting with My AI and how often.