Snapchat’s AI Bot Posted a Story; Panicked Users Think It Has Gone Sentient

In April, when the race to integrate AI into everything was the “next big thing,” Snapchat decided to jump onto the AI bandwagon with its My AI chatbot. And since then, the AI has been marred with controversies with users reportedly catching the AI lying about having access to their location and much more. However, after that incident, it looked like users slowly started accepting the AI chatbot, well, until this week when My AI caused panic among Snapchat users. In the latest turn of events, users are freaking out as Snapchat’s My AI apparently “gained a mind of its own” and posted a story. Keep reading to know exactly what happened.

Snapchat My AI Freaks Out Users By Posting a Story

Social media has been buzzing with users expressing their concerns about the My AI chatbot. It seems that the AI apparently went “rogue” and posted a very unusual content in the form of a brief one-second story featuring a two-toned image that resembled a user’s ceiling. It appeared as if the AI chatbot secretly clicked an image of the ceiling of the user and posted it to its Snapchat story. The user, Matt Esparaza, even shared an image comparison with a photo of his own ceiling on X (formerly Twitter). However, he wasn’t alone in experiencing this strange occurrence.

Soon after, several users began to see the same two-tone image shared on Snapchat by My AI. This continued for several hours until the story was removed, and the AI chatbot ceased to function altogether. Panic set among users who started asking My AI questions, resulting in varying answers for different users.

Is My AI Scrambling for a Response?

Some saw the AI responding to every message with a “Sorry I encountered a technical issue” prompt. While other users, when enquired about the “mysterious story,” My AI initially denied having the capability to post stories but moments later admitted that it had indeed made a story post and thought that “it would be a fun and unique way to share something with my friends.”

And in another instance, a user asked the chatbot to say “red” if it needed help and a few messages later, Snapchat My AI replied “Red.” However, not all was gloomy as this unusual instance also gave birth to some really hilarious memes like this one.

Snapchat My AI Story: What Actually Went Down

Now, you may ask what exactly happened to make the AI bot this way? And the answer is not as exciting as you might think. According to a statement shared a Snapchat spokesperson (via TechCrunch), the AI experienced a temporary technical outage, which resulted in this “out of the ordinary behavior.” As of now, the issue stands resolved. The spokesperson also informed that the AI does not have the ability to post stories.

But this does beg the question. Is Snapchat looking to introduce this capability for My AI soon? Was the outage because of this test? Given that My AI can interact with users and even text back responses, it doesn’t seem unlikely for the platform to introduce this feature in the near future. However, as of now, all we can do is wait. And after this event, if you want to remove My AI chatbot from your Snapchat chat feed completely, follow the steps in the guide linked here.

So, what do you think of this latest Snapchat My AI frenzy? Did you encounter this issue? Do you use My AI? Do let us know your thoughts in the comments below.