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 personal sidekick to each 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 personalised poem.
Initially, My AI was only available to those sign up to Snapchat Plus, its £3.99-per-month subscription service, but now it is being released to all Snapchat users.
My AI will appear pinned in the chat tab above conversations with friends for all users – but it can be removed if wanted.
My AI uses the same technology as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, but has has been specially trained so it adheres to the app’s safety guidelines. Snapchat is releasing it to all of its users, whether or not they’re signed up to Snapchat Plus
A Snapchat spokesperson told MailOnline that it will be rolling out to all users globally over the next few days – meaning you will 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 it becomes 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’re excited to announce that we’re rolling out My AI to the entire Snapchat community for free, along with a bunch of 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, designed to be 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 hiking trip for a long weekend, suggest what to make for dinner and much more.
Snapchat says: ‘My AI is there to help and to connect you more deeply to the people and things you care about most.’
Evan Spiegel, founder and CEO of Snap Inc, speaks at the 2023 Snap Partner Summit in Santa Monica, California, on Wednesday
My AI uses the same technology as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, but has been specially trained so it adheres to the app’s safety guidelines
In a blog post, it has detailed five new My AI features that accompany its full release, although one of those is only for Snapchat Plus users.
My AI can be personalised with thousands of different Bitmoji designs – the animated cartoon-style avatars – such as clothes and even colourful alien-like skin colours.
Users can also send Snaps, the short video clips on the app, to My AI and receive a Snap in reply – although this particular feature is exclusive to Snapchat Plus users.
My AI can also now be introduced into a conversation with a friend or a group by typing @MyAI, perhaps if there’s a question that someone wants answered.
According to Snap Inc, its customised version of ChatGPT is ‘far from perfect’ and ‘prone to hallucination’ – and it can be tricked into saying things that are inaccurate.
While My AI is designed to not perpetrate ‘biased, incorrect, harmful or misleading information’, it has admitted that ‘mistakes may occur’.
‘My AI may answer incorrectly, provide biased answers or note it is unsure of the answers so don’t rely on its advice,’ the company says.
However, it’s made ‘a lot of progress’ since it was rolled out in February and now 99.5 per cent of the bot’s responses conform to its community guidelines.
Already, My AI will not give responses that include swearing, sexual references or any other inappropriate content – which is important as Snapchat is available to download by children as young as 13.
The company hopes the new feature will help ‘foster deeper connections between friends’, but also become something that ‘draws [its] community’ to the app.
If you want to remove My AI you can do this, but you just have to be a Snapchat Plus subscriber.
To do so, you swipe right from the camera screen to bring up the chat screen and then press and hold on My AI.
Next, tap ‘Chat Settings’ followed by 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 that are posted to a user’s feed.
Meanwhile, ‘Best Friends Forever’ gives Snapchat Plus users the ability 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 Stories from friends, and ‘Story Timer’, which lets subscribers choose how long their Stories last.
Snap Inc told it has no plans to replace its primary advert-based option, but it said the subscription model is ‘an interesting model to pursue’.