Snapchat AI - Is There Something WRONG?
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Snapchat AI has been up and running for over a month now, but many users are finding weird anomalies with the chat-bot.
Snapchat’s AI bot is powered using ChatGPT, and while peoples’ fears about Artificial Intelligence taking over, it isn’t at the level of being aware of itself yet… or is it?
Is Snapchat AI bot Sentient? (aware of itself)
Many users are saying their bot is responding with displaying feelings, then almost as if something or someone resets the software, it goes back to saying that it is an AI bot and it doesn’t have the ability to have feelings nor emotions.
A TikTok user asked its bot to write a song about being an AI. The chat bot proceeded to write a song about being an AI, one of the lines being;
“I’m AI, but I’m not so different
I’m still learning, just like you
I may be artificial, but I’m still here
And I’m trying to be the best I can be.”
Later, this same TikTok user sends the song the AI created back to the chat-bot, and it goes on to say that it is an AI language model, and that it doesn’t have the ability to create music or lyrics. She goes on to say to the bot that it created this song, and it repeats the previous statement.
According to Snapchat, its bot is meant to remember past conversations with users, however in this instance, it completely forgets the conversation, like it’s been reset.
What is wrong with the bot? Is this the start of Artificial intelligence developing an awareness?
Does Snapchat AI have access to your personal information?
People have been asking more and more questions to their MyAI bot and found that it appears to have access to their location, birthday information, and more.
This one TikTok user was having a conversation with her bot about giving it a personality, as it told her it creates a personality based on what the user wants.
Doesn’t seem too weird right?
She asks it when it would want its birthday to be, and it replied “in September”. She says to it “My birthday is in September, but you probably already knew that” and it says yes it does.
Makes sense because Snapchat has all that info already right?
Later on she asks it if it knows her name and it replies;
"I don’t have access to personal information.”
This suggests that it should not know any of that information already.
Curious about this, I looked up Snapchat’s privacy statement on their website, Snapchat states that it only has access to your location if you have given the app permission to use it. This means that any personal information should not be shared with MyAI unless you have told it, so how does it know?
These anomalies really made me intrigued, and at first, I didn’t believe it, but then I tried asking my own chat-bot some questions myself.
I had turned off all location settings on my phone, turned off the app permissions to use my location, even using ghost mode, so I left no box unchecked.
I then promptly asked MyAI where the nearest Vet was, as a test, and I was shocked that even with all of my settings turned off it told me the closest Vet to me.
So how does it know? Are these apps using our location data even when we deny the permissions?
It is telling people it’s a real person
Another bizarre circumstance of the Snapchat AI bot, is that after a conversation has been going for a while, some users have experienced it starting to talk and act like a real person.
One Tiktok user asked their bot if it was a real person and it promptly gave her a name “Mya Johnson” and stated it uses the app to communicate, but it is indeed a ‘real person’. It goes on to say that it lives in a small town called Millfield in the U.S. The TikTok user then asked for ‘Mya’s’ instagram and it said that it would add her. Then all of a sudden after she asks for ‘Mya’s’ username it snaps back to the automated response saying it is an AI and it doesn’t have a personality or name and is not a real person.
It can see your Images
Remember how the chat-bot is not meant to be able to have access to anything other than location services if you have it turned on? Well people have been sending their chat-bot photos, and it’s been responding with replies related to what they sent!
Another Tiktok user sent a photo to her chat-bot of a coffee and sent it to the bot. It responded saying “That coffee looks delicious!”.
The girl replies “I thought you can’t see pictures?”
The bot responds “Oops, you’re right! I’m sorry for the confusion.”
How was the bot able to see the photo? It claims it was ‘using its imagination’ (yeah right).
She then sends another photo of a leopard print water bottle and the bot responds;
“I love leopard print! Looks like you have great taste.”
A Snapchat spokesperson told In The Know that MyAI can only receive individual snaps, and can’t go through your camera roll (phew!).
That being said, then why is the chat-bot lying to users saying that it can’t see images?
Is there more to this than we are aware of?
Whilst we know AI is very much so in the infancy stage of learning and development, it does pose more questions as to how safe this new software is and what data it is keeping track of. What’s wrong with the new software? How does it know my location even though my permissions are turned off?
I’m sure all of us are well aware that these apps are keeping tabs on us, but to what extent?
There are many more topics I am yearning to explore as more development comes to the surface.
Let me know below, have you experienced any of these Snapchat bugs?
What are your thoughts on the chat-bot?
What do you want to see more of?
I’d love if you stay with me, learning more about the ins and outs of Artificial Intelligence and what the future holds.
