CNN
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Less than hours after Snapchat rolled out the My AI chatbot to all users last week, Lindsay Lee, a mother from East Prairie, Missouri, told her 13-year-old daughter to stay away from the feature. I told you.
“This is a temporary solution until I learn more and can set healthy boundaries and guidelines,” said Lee, who works for a software company.she is worried How My AI looks to young users like my daughter on Snapchat.
This functionality is powered by the viral AI chatbot tool ChatGPT, which, like ChatGPT, can provide recommendations, answer questions, and have conversations with users. However, Snapchat’s version has some important differences. Users can customize their chatbot. Give it a name, design a custom Bitmoji avatar and bring it into conversation with your friends.
The net effect is that a conversation with a Snapchat chatbot may feel less transactional than visiting the ChatGPT website. Also, it may not be very clear what you are talking to the computer.
“From her point of view, humans and machines are essentially the same, but I don’t think I’m ready for how to teach my kids how to differentiate emotionally,” Lee says. said. “I think there are really clear boundaries. [Snapchat] is crossing. ”
The new tool is facing backlash from parents as well as some Snapchat Users criticized the app on social media, citing bad app store reviews, privacy concerns, “spooky” interactions, and the inability to remove features from chat feeds without paying a premium subscription. there is
While some may see value in the tool, mixed reactions face companies as they roll out new generative AI techniques into their own products, especially ones like Snapchat, whose users are skewed toward younger demographics. indicates risk.
Snapchat was an early launch partner when OpenAI opened up access to ChatGPT to third-party companies, and more are expected to follow. Almost overnight, Snapchat forced some families and lawmakers to consider questions that might have seemed theoretical just a few months ago.
In a letter to CEOs of Snap and other tech companies last month, weeks after My AI was released to Snap’s subscription customers, Democratic Sen. I expressed my concerns about the exchanges that were taking place. He specifically cited reports that it could provide kids with tips on how to lie to their parents.
“These examples are alarming for any social media platform, but they’re especially troubling for Snapchat, which is used by nearly 60 percent of American teenagers,” Bennett wrote. “Snap admits My AI is ‘experimental’, but it is nonetheless rushing to get American children and adolescents to participate in the social experiment.”
“My AI is far from perfect, but we have made a lot of progress,” the company said in a blog post last week.
In the days since the official launch, Snapchatters have been vocal about their concerns. One user said he lied about not knowing the user’s whereabouts and described his interaction as “horrifying.” After the user lightened the conversation, the chatbot revealed precisely that he lived in Colorado, he said.
In another TikTok video that has over 1.5 million views, a user named Ariel recorded a song with an intro, chorus and piano chords written by My AI about what a chatbot looks like. After sending the recorded song back, the chatbot denied any involvement in replying, “Sorry, as an AI language model, I don’t write songs.” Ariel called the exchange “creepy”.
Others shared concerns about how the tool understands, manipulates, and gathers information from photos. “I took a picture and it said ‘nice shoes’ and I asked who was who.” [were] In the photo,” the Snapchat user wrote on Facebook.
Snapchat told CNN that it continues to improve My AI based on community feedback and is working to establish additional guardrails to keep users safe. The company also said that, like other tools, users don’t have to interact with My AI unless they want to.
Impossible However, My AI cannot be removed from the chat feed unless the user subscribes to the chat feed. Snapchat+, a monthly premium service. Some teens say they chose to pay Snapchat+’s $3.99 fee to turn off the tool before immediately canceling the service.
However, not all users dislike this feature.
One user wrote on Facebook asking My AI for help with his homework. “That’s all right.” Another noted that he turned to the app for solace and advice. “I love my little pockets, my best friend!” she wrote. “You can change your Bitmoji [avatar] And surprisingly, it offers really great advice for some real-world situations. …I love this support. ”
ChatGPT has been trained on the vast amount of online data, but it has also been used to spread inaccurate information, respond in ways users might find inappropriate, and allow students to cheat. It has been criticized for trying to But as Snapchat consolidates its tools, it risks exacerbating some of these problems and adding new ones.
Parents of some patients have expressed concerns about how their teenage children will interact with the Snapchat tool, according to New York City clinical psychologist Alexandra Hamlett. advice from chatbots, AI tools can reinforce someone’s confirmation bias, making it easier for users to seek out interactions that support their unhelpful beliefs, which can have a negative impact on mental health.
“If a teenager is in a negative mood and has no conscious desire to feel better, they may seek a conversation with a chatbot that they know will make them feel worse,” she says. “Over time, these interactions can devalue teens, even when they know they are actually talking to a bot. It makes it hard to think of this kind of logic.”
At this point, especially as popular apps and services begin to feature AI tools, it’s up to parents to start meaningful conversations with their teens about best practices for communicating with AI.
Sinead Bovel, founder of WAYE, a startup that uses advanced technology to help prepare adolescents for the future, said parents need to make it clear that ‘chatbots are not friends’. .
“They are not therapists or trusted advisors, and anyone who interacts with them should be very careful, especially with teens who tend to believe them,” she says.
“Parents should start talking to their kids now about not sharing anything personal with their chatbot friends. Even if they are.”
He added that maintaining the rapid pace of AI progress also requires federal regulations requiring companies to adhere to specific protocols.
