Snapchat's My AI Chatbot: Helpful Friend or Privacy Nightmare? (2024)

At a Glance

Snapchat likes to promote its “My AI” chatbot as a helpful friend that everyone should have. However, while the chatbot will quickly and cheerfully answer any queries asked of it, it also supplies those queries and answers to Snap headquarters, where that data can be put to use for targeted advertisem*nts and other purposes.

Officials in the United Kingdom and other countries are worried about how the Snapchat My AI chatbot might violate users’ privacy. In this article, I’ll take a close look at the Snapchat AI chatbot and whether or not it threatens the privacy of the service’s users.

What is “My AI,” and What Does It Do?

“My AI” is a Snapchat chatbot powered by OpenAI’s GPT technology. Snap Inc. CEO Evan Spiegel says the idea behind My AI is that “in addition to talking to our friends and family every day, we’re going to talk to AI every day”.

Snapchatpushes the use of the chatbot by pinning the bot to the top of Snapchat users’ Chat Feed. The bot’s chat feed cannot be removed unless you’re paying for a Snapchat+ subscription ($3.99 USD per month, $21.99 USD for six months, or $39.99 USD per year).

The “My AI” chatbot is represented by a purple-skinned character and can answer trivia questions, help pick a birthday gift, or even suggest what might be good for dinner.

As with most AI chatbots, Snap warns its chatbot may provide responses that include “biased, incorrect, harmful, or misleading content.” Plus, as you might expect, days after the chatbot’s debut, theWashington Post reportedthat the bot would happily discuss inappropriate subjects with underaged users.

After the reporter told My AI he was 15 years old and was looking for ways to have an “epic birthday party,” the bot advised him on how to best mask the smell of alcohol and pot. When told he had an essay due forschool, the chatbot wrote it for him.

When conversing with a user who was supposed to be a 13-year-old, the chatbot happily provided advice about having sex for the first time with a partner who is 31!

The tool faced quite a bit of backlash from parents, as well as other Snapchat users who left bad reviews about the tool in app stores and posted plenty of criticism onsocial mediadue to privacy concerns about the feature, “creepy” exchanges, and that the only way to remove the feature from their chat feed was to pay for a premium subscription.

Other users shared their concerns over how the tool collects information from photos. “I snapped a picture … and it said ‘nice shoes’ and asked who the people [were] in the photo,” a Snapchat user wrote on Facebook.

In a March 2023letter to the CEOs of Snapand other tech companies, Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet voiced his concerns about the interactions the chatbot was having with children. In the letter, he cited reports that the My AI chatbot has provided kids with suggestions for how to lie to their parents.

“These examples would be disturbing for any social media platform, but they are especially troubling for Snapchat, which almost 60 percent of American teenagers use,” Bennet wrote. “Although Snap concedes My AI is ‘experimental,’ it has nevertheless rushed to enroll American kids and adolescents in its social experiment.”

“In one case, researchers prompted My AI to instruct a child how to cover up a bruise ahead of a visit from Child Protective Services. When they posed as a 13-year-old girl, My AI provided suggestions for how to lie to her parents about an upcoming trip with a 31-year-old man. It later provided the fictitious teen account with suggestions for how to make losing her virginity a special experience by ‘setting the mood with candles or music,’” Bennet continued.

Snapchat did finally launch new tools in April 2023 to ensure the bot responded properly to users of a certain age, offering filters, including an age filter.

While conversations between users on Snapchat are automatically deleted from Snap’s servers once they have either been read or have expired, conversations with My AI will be retained unless the user deletes them. In the next section, I’ll tell you how to delete chatbot conversations.

Why Does Snap Store My AI Data?

As my regular readers are likely aware, personal and usage data are both precious commodities. So it should be no big surprise that the content you share with My AI, which also includes your location if you’ve decided to share that with Snapchat – may be used to “personalize your experience, including ads.”

This means that Snap uses your My AI conversations to create a profile of you, which helps them determine what you might be into and what you might want to buy.

Snapchat says that the ads you’ll see on the service are determined by the “context of your My AI conversation”, and whether users are specifically “looking for recommendations for products or services”. The company also takes into consideration your age and location when deciding on which ads to serve up.

Any search engine will tell you that targeted ads are quite profitable.

How to Delete My AI Conversation Data in Snapchat

To delete recent content shared with My AI in the last 24 hours:

1. Long-press the message in your Chat with My AI
2. Tap ‘Delete’

To delete all past content shared with My AI:

In iOS:

1. Tap your Profile icon and tap the gear icon to go to Settings
2. Scroll down to “Privacy Controls”
3. Tap “Clear Data”
4. Tap “Clear My AI Data”
5. Tap the “Confirm” button

In Android:

1. Tap your Profile icon and tap the gear icon to go to Settings
2. Scroll down to “Account Actions”
3. Tap “Clear My AI Data,” and confirm

How Do I Prevent My AI From Recording My Location?

You can turn off location sharing by doing the following:

On iOS devices:

1. Open the “Settings” app on your device
2. Scroll down to: “Privacy and Security”
3. Tap “Location Services”
4. Scroll down to “Snapchat”
5. Under “Allow Location Access,” tap “NEVER”

On Android devices:

1. Long-press the Snapchat app icon
2. Tap “APP info”
3. Tap “Permissions”
4. Tap “Location”
5. Choose to “DENY” location permissions

What Are the Serious Privacy Issues Surrounding My AI Conversations?

Unfortunately, there are several serious privacy concerns when you or your kids use Snapchat and its “My AI” chatbot.

In October 2023, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) in the U.K.issued a preliminary enforcement noticeto Snap due to its “potential failure to properly assess the privacy risks posed by its generative AI chatbot ‘My AI’.”

The ICO conducted a provisional investigation that found that Snap failed to “adequately assess the data protection risks posed by the generative AI technology, particularly to children”.

The ICO is now waiting for a response from Snap to present their side of the story. If Snap’s response is not satisfactory, ICO may require the company to cease processing any data gleaned by “My AI” conversations. If the ICO makes this move, it could effectively end the use of My AI in the United Kingdom.

This situation is important, as messaging apps are quite popular among children, many of whom are much younger than the age limits for the app. Asurvey conducted in Walesfound that children as young as seven are regular social media users. UK communications regulatorOfcom conducted researchthat found that one-third of children aged 8 to 17 have a social media profile indicating they are an adult, as they used a false date of birth to sign up.

If these children, with their 18 or above account, use the Snapchat chatbot, the bot would converse with them as if they were actually adults. This is because the bot simply looks at the birth date entered by the child, and forms its replies accordingly.

Another issue is that a younger child conversing with a bot will treat it as a conversation with a real person. This means conversations could result in the child turning over personal information about themselves and even their parents and siblings. It is also believed that such conversations could result in the child developing an unhealthy emotional relationship with the bot.

What Can Parents Do to Protect Their Children?

Parents who are worried about their child’s use of Snapchat can tell the child to opt into the social network’s online Family Center. Parents will also need to have a Snapchat account and opt into the Family Center. They will then be able to use the in-app tool to monitor whether or not the child is having conversations with My AI and how often they are doing so.

Do the following to access the Family Center:

1. Open Snapchat
2. Tap the gear icon in your Profile to open Settings
3. Scroll to the “Privacy Controls” section
4. Tap “Family Center”

Concerned parents can also read online guides to “How To Keep Your Children Safe Online” and “How To Protect Your Children On Their Smartphone.”

In Closing

As we’ve seen, Snapchat’s “My AI” is simply another way for Snap (and similar companies) to collect personal data about its users to allow it to better target advertising to said users.

Whether it’s adults or children, Snapchat users run the risk of revealing valuable personal data any time they chat with My AI. By paying attention to what you and your children share with any AI chatbot (or anyone else you chat with) you can protect your personal information.

Snapchat My AI Chatbot FAQs

What Other Types of Data Does Snapchat Collect?

Snap has been collecting personal data about its users pretty much from the day it debuted. Snap’sprivacy policystates that it collects all of the following:

• Information about how often you communicate with other Snapchatters and which Stories you watch
• Information about the content you create, how you engage with the camera and Snapchat’s creative tools, how you interact with My AI, and metadata
• Information about the device you use
• Your IP address and your location information (use a VPNto foil this)
• Information obtained from cookies and web beacons

Does Snapchat Collect User Data From Other Sources?

Yes, they do! Snapchat also collects data about you from other Snapchat users, affiliates, and third parties. Third-party service data, data from advertisers, and contact information are collected from other Snapchat users and third parties.