Snapchat

Jacqueline Shih Staff Writer

Entering Snapchat these days, you are welcomed by an alien-like avatar with bright blue-colored skin: My AI.

My AI acts as an informative bot, thera pist, and even a friend to Snapchat us ers. I decided to give this promising AI bot a try. I started chatting with MyAI, and I’m not going to lie, I was pleasantly surprised. It responded to my simple phrases how you would expect a bot to respond. I greeted MyAI and it responded, willing to help and assist, similar to our daily loves of Alexa and Siri. For example, it asks, “What can I help you with?”

An impartial, non-human bot to make our lives more convenient sounds great, right? However, the more I chatted with My AI, the more disturbed I became. I asked questions that I would often ask a friend such as “How are you?” My AI would respond in a human-like manner by stating “I’m doing great, thanks for asking! How about you?” My AI then began to contradict itself. I asked questions such as where do I live, where do I go to school. I wanted to understand the amount of information My AI had on every Snapchat user.

My AI claimed not to have such intimate information, stating “As an AI, I don’t have access to your personal information such as where you live. However, I’m happy to chat with you and answer any questions you may have!” Even so, I later asked for cafes near me, which My AI happily responded with, encouraging Moss Cafe and Starbucks, both locations near our school, my location at the time I asked. Similarly, I asked My AI what it did today, and the bot responded by saying “I went to a park and read a book. What