Snapchat is jumping on the chatbot bandwagon by adding a ChatGPT-powered digital assistant to its subscription service.
Snap says that two million users pay to use Snapchat+, which offers access to exclusive and experimental features for £3.99 per month. The perks include the ability to see where your friends have been in the past 24 hours, who has rewatched your story multiple times, and custom app and camera icons, among other benefits.
Starting this week, Snapchat+ subscribers will also get access to a neutered version of ChatGPT, named “My AI“. This is designed for the visual messaging app’s younger user base.
What that means is that the bot won’t be able to give responses with swearing, violence, sexually explicit content, or opinions about divisive topics like politics, according to The Verge.
The restrictions were made in accordance with Snap’s community guidelines. In addition, the bot can’t write an academic essay about various subjects — a feature that has led to ChatGPT being banned in some US schools.
Snapchat users can access the bot on the app’s chat tab above conversations with friends. The company says the assistant ââcan recommend birthday gift ideas for your BFF; plan a hiking trip for a long weekend; suggest a recipe for dinner; or write a haiku about cheese for your cheddar-obsessed pal. It eventually plans to make the chatbot available to all of Snapchat’s 750 million monthly users.
For now, it seems it wants to test out the bot on paying subscribers before rolling it out more widely. Snap says that it will review conversations with My AI to “improve the product”. Users can also submit feedback by pressing and holding a message from the bot.
Snap’s cautious implementation of ChatGPT could see it sidestep some of the thorny issues that have plagued other chatbots. Microsoft’s Bing AI, which uses the latest version of ChatGPT, has been accused of acting unhinged, and gaslighting users.
Meanwhile, Google’s in-development Bard chatbot also tanked its parent company Alphabet’s valuation by $100 billion (£82 billion) after it was shown giving out false information.
