May 24, 2023
hwchronicle.com/features
Features B7
FAke I Friends The school community discusses the impact of Snapchat’s new “My AI” chatbot on teenage social interactions and friendships.
By Ella Yadegar As Ellie Whang ’24 checked her Snapchat one morning in April, she was surprised to see a clothed, anthropomorphic chatbot named “My AI” pinned to the top of her chat feed. She had experimented with artificial intelligence before, trying programs like ChatGPT. But Whang said seeing the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on Snapchat, an app she exclusively viewed as a form of social media to communicate with friends, made her worry about students’ social interactions. “If people have access to all these different kinds of AI, they can ask it whatever they want,” Whang said. “That is kind of how AI is advertised. Ask it anything, and it will give you an answer. Then it will start limiting human interaction, and that is kind of just where we are going. People can rely more on AI instead of their friends or other people.” After only being accessible to Snapchat+ subscribers for $3.99 a month, Snapchat released My AI for free for all users in April. The chatbot appears as a customizable avatar and can access users’ locations if the app’s location services are turned on, according to Snapchat Support. Josh Siegel, the Director of Consumer Product Management at Snapchat, said in an email that his department found incorporating AI allowed Snapchat to utilize new technology to support the platform’s existing features. “Messaging and communication is a core daily behavior on Snapchat, whether by text or visually,” Siegel said. “U.S. Snapchatters open the app nearly 40 times a day, and our global community creates over five billion Snaps daily. AI fits seamlessly into this core product value, and we are finding new and exciting ways for it to surface Snapchat content and power fun and useful interactions for our community.” Snapchat is open about My AI’s faults, with Snapchat Support claiming that because AI is an evolving technology: “it’s possible My AI’s responses may include biased, incorrect, harmful or misleading content.” While experimenting with My AI, Ofek Levy ’23 said he noticed inconsistencies in the technology’s responses. “I saw this thing on Tik Tok where I saw someone sending [My AI] pictures, and it kept saying, ‘I am glad you are having a fun day in the sun’ or ‘I love that shirt,’ and when you asked it
if it can see, it would say, ‘no, Snapchat AI cannot see,’” Levy said. The weirdest part of it is that it has these responses that shift dramatically depending on your responses to it. To some degree, that is the purpose of AI, but when it is lying about what it can and cannot do, it seems really sketchy.” In one instance, Levy said he experienced the chatbot being biased against some races or religions. “I had a friend messaging it and talking about the Holocaust,” Levy said. “And [the My AI] was like, ‘we do not talk about that here’ and ‘that is so inappropriate.’ My friend told it she was Jewish and the AI responded, ‘Oh, my God, I’m so sorry.’” Although she believes Snapchat’s My AI will provide comfort to struggling teenagers, Addison Carson ’25 said the AI would not be able to empathize with people the same way another human could. “These robots are made to have specific scripts and things to say, which is only good when someone is in need of basic sympathy,” Carson said. “It is a helpful tool for people who are just looking for someone to rant to or if they are feeling lonely. It can become detrimental when people begin to rely on the company of Snapchat’s AI because it is definitely not the same as human interaction.” Carson said she is currently in training to respond to texts, emails and eventually phone calls from people reaching out to Teen Line, a hotline run by professionally-trained teenage advisers who provide
mental health support and re- gestions it will give me.” sources to youth around the world. Siegel said the company cre“The main things we have focused ated its AI chatbot with the inon in training are active listening and tention of humanizing it so it empathy skills,” Carson said. “We also could better connect with users. focus on learning about different men“My AI is here to help you contal health challenges and how to com- nect with friends, learn about the fort and support people that may be world and just have fun,” Siegel said. struggling with different things in their “It was trained to have a unique tone lives. If you are looking for advice or and personality that plays into Snapmore than only surface-level sympathy, chat’s core values around friendship, then My AI would not be sufficient.” learning and fun. We’ll learn a lot from Whang, who also volunteers at Teen the way our community engages with Line, said after interacting with the My AI to shape what comes next.” chatbot herself, she Some students exrealized it is not a repressed concerns about liable place for people the information that The fact that struggling with mental My AI collects from health issues to turn to. Snapchat has tried to users, which Snapchat “I started asking stores as data. Sophia make [My AI] so that it a bunch of simple Vourakis ’24 said she it seems to hold that questions like ‘What’s is paranoid about havyour favorite song?’ or space for a replacement ing AI on Snapchat, ‘What’s your favorite which she previously friend is what makes it color?’” Whang said. reserved for commudangerous.” “And then I wanted to nicating with friends. really test its bound“The first time — Ofek Levy ‘23 aries and see the exyou open the chat, tent of things that I it has a little pop-up could say to it. I remembered we were that asks you to accept its [terms and talking about AI at Teen Line with the conditions],” Vourakis said. “I know adult supervisors, so I decided to ask it that every single app steals your data. what I should do if I am depressed. It I’m not super paranoid about things popped in the chat and then just left stealing my information because that without giving me any answer at all.” is everything now, but I still think it Whang said although is a little weird that you have to click she recognized the accept. It is kind of odd in the first chatbot is not de- place that [Snapchat] thought it would signed to be an be neat to have people talk to a chatexpert in mental bot. The purpose of Snapchat is to talk health, it can still to other real people and not robots.” be useful in cerLevy said it is important for teentain circumstances. agers who use Snapchat to be aware “I text it for ad- of what they are using My AI for. vice that I am em“I understand why people would barrassed to ask my want to use it to have a good laugh,” friends about,” Levy said. “And I think that’s ultimateWhang said. ly what it will be used for. But there “I will explain will be certain cases where it is used a hypotheti- inappropriately. There will be people cal situation who will use it as more of a friend than that is actual- anything else. The fact that Snapchat ly going on in has tried to make it so that it seems my life to try and to hold that space for a replacement gauge what sug- friend is what makes it dangerous.”
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ILLUSTRATIONS BY EVA PARK