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Snapchat became the latest platform to jump on the chatbot bandwagon when it launched My AI in February.
My AI is “an experimental and friendly” chatbot designed to be a personalized help to any Snapchatter who chats with it, the social media app says.
Powered by OpenAI’s ChatGPT, it can be used to come up with dinner suggestions, plan an itinerary or send a loved one a personalized poem.
Initially, My AI was only available to those who sign up to Snapchat Plus, the £3.99 a month subscription service, but now it’s being released to all Snapchat users.
My AI is pinned to the chat tab above conversations with friends for all users, but can be removed if desired.
My AI uses the same technology as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, but is specially trained to meet the app’s security guidelines. Snapchat releases it to all of its users whether or not they are signed up to Snapchat Plus
A Snapchat spokesperson told MailOnline that it will roll out to all users worldwide in the coming days, meaning you’ll soon see it at the top of the chat tab.
The social media app has now upgraded My AI with new features and functionality as they become available to all its users, including the ability to include it in chat conversations.
Snap Inc, the company that owns Snapchat, made the announcement at Snap Partner Summit, its annual developer conference on Wednesday.
“We are excited to announce that we are rolling out My AI to the entire Snapchat community for free, along with some brand new features,” said Evan Spiegel, founder and CEO.
“We can’t wait to see how our community embraces My AI.”
According to the Snapchat website, My AI is an experimental, friendly chatbot currently available to users and designed as a personal sidekick.
In a chat conversion, My AI can answer a trivial question, suggest a gift for a friend’s birthday, help plan a long weekend hiking trip, suggest what to make for dinner, and much more.
Snapchat says, “My AI is here to help and connect you more deeply with the people and things you care about most.”
Evan Spiegel, founder and CEO of Snap Inc, speaking Wednesday at the 2023 Snap Partner Summit in Santa Monica, California
My AI uses the same technology as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, but is specially trained to meet the app’s security guidelines
In a blog postit detailed five new My AI features coming with the full release, though one of them is only for Snapchat Plus users.
My AI can be personalized with thousands of different Bitmoji designs – the cartoonish avatars – such as clothes and even colorful alien skin tones.
Users can also send Snaps, the short video clips in the app, to My AI and receive a Snap in response – though this particular feature is exclusive to Snapchat Plus users.
My AI can now also be introduced in a conversation with a friend or a group by typing @MyAI, for example if there is a question someone wants answered.
According to Snap Inc, the modified version of ChatGPT is “far from perfect” and “prone to hallucinations” — and can be tricked into saying things that are inaccurate.
While My AI is designed not to provide “biased, inaccurate, harmful or misleading information,” it has admitted that “errors can occur.”
“My AI may give incorrect answers, give biased answers, or notice that it’s not sure of the answers, so don’t rely on its advice,” the company says.
However, it’s made “a lot of progress” since it rolled out in February, and now 99.5 percent of the bot’s responses meet the community guidelines.
My AI already doesn’t provide comments that contain swearing, sexual references or other inappropriate content – which is important because Snapchat can already be downloaded by children as young as 13.
The company hopes the new feature will help “foster deeper connections between friends” as well as become something that “attracts” [its] community’ to the app.
If you want to delete My AI, you can do it, but you just need to be a Snapchat Plus subscriber.
To do this, swipe right from the camera screen to open the chat screen and hold My AI.
Then tap “Chat Settings” followed by “Clear from chat feed” to get rid of it.
Snapchat Plus is a collection of exclusive and experimental features available in Snapchat for $3.99/month
Snapchat Plus launched last year with six exclusive features, including “Rewatch Indicator,” which shows how many people are rewatching Stories — the photos and videos posted to a user’s feed.
Meanwhile, “Best Friends Forever” gives Snapchat Plus users the option to pin one friend as their number one “BFF.”
Other features that have since been added, such as Story Boost to get more views of friends’ Stories, and Story Timer, which allows subscribers to choose how long their Stories last.
Snap Inc said it has no plans to replace its primary ad-based option, but said the subscription model is “an interesting model to pursue.”