Snapchat launches an OpenAI chatbot as your new friend

Snapchat just brought OpenAI into your everyday friend list, and it is already apologizing for whatever the bot might do next.

The company announced My AI, an experimental chatbot powered by OpenAI technology. It is rolling out this week to Snapchat+ subscribers, who pay $3.99 a month, with the ultimate goal of bringing it to all users down the road.

A virtual buddy pinned right above your friends

Instead of pitching the bot as a productivity booster or an essay-writing engine, Snap is dressing it up as a regular contact.

Once live, My AI sits pinned at the very top of your chat feed, holding a permanent spot above your real-life friends and family. CEO Evan Spiegel told The Verge that the big idea is simple: in addition to talking to loved ones every day, we are going to talk to AI every day. He argued messaging apps are uniquely positioned to make that happen.

Under the hood, the bot runs on a custom version of OpenAI tech. Reports indicate it is using OpenAI Foundry, an invite-only tier that grants deep-pocketed clients access to GPT-3.5, the model behind ChatGPT, while public APIs were still limited to the older GPT-3.

Preemptive apologies for the inevitable hallucination

Having watched other AI rollouts crash into PR nightmares, Snap is trying to set ground rules early.

My AI is programmed to steer clear of profanity, violence, sexually explicit material, and political opinions. Users can also press and hold on any questionable response to flag it so Snap can refine the safety filters over time.

Still, Snap knows internet users will try to break it. In an unusually candid announcement, the company admitted that the bot is prone to hallucinations and can easily be tricked into saying out-of-bounds things. Snap essentially told users to watch out for its flaws and offered a proactive sorry in advance.

Why it matters

This marks one of the first aggressive pushes to turn generative AI from a utilitarian tool into a casual social companion. Until now, people opened ChatGPT to write code, draft emails, or look up information. Snap is testing whether hundreds of millions of users actually want an always-on synthetic confidant baked into their everyday messaging flow.

We think putting this behind the $3.99 monthly Snapchat+ paywall is a smart financial buffer. Running inference on advanced models is wildly expensive, and limiting initial access keeps compute bills predictable while giving subscribers a flashy reason to keep paying.

The glaring risk, however, is Snapchat's core demographic. A huge slice of its audience is young and impressionable. Putting an AI bot permanently pinned at the top of their chat tray when the platform already admits it can be easily manipulated is a massive safety hazard. A preemptive apology might soften the blow among tech enthusiasts, but it will not shield Snap if the bot goes off the rails with teenagers.