How Snap is developing its own bot with My AI
Götz Trillhaas, Managing Director at Snap, talks about the in-house chatbot "My AI" in an interview. Snapchat is thus following suit with the use of GPT technology.
nextMedia: What can "My AI" do and what is it currently used for?
Götz Trillhaas: My AI is a chatbot with the latest version of ChatGPT technology, which was developed in collaboration with OpenAI and specially adapted for Snapchat. The chatbot was designed as a personal companion for Snapchatters. My AI can currently answer knowledge questions and suggest creative ideas, such as recommending the perfect birthday present, drafting various text formats, such as poems, on specific topics, suggesting a dish for dinner or planning the next outing, and much more.
nextMedia: What makes "My AI" special? How does it differ from the chatbots that have appeared so far?
Götz Trillhaas : In contrast to conventional chatbots, My AI is a kind of personal assistant and not an anonymous search engine. The special feature is that the bot can be personalized. Users can give their chatbots their own name and customize the background design of the chat. The chatbot can also be personalized at the software level. For example, specific likes or dislikes can be set in advance so that the chatbot's suggestions are optimized to personal taste. In addition, our employees have trained the AI to adhere to the company's trust and safety guidelines and not to give answers that contain swearing, violence, explicit sexual content or opinions on sensitive topics such as politics. My AI is particularly easy for Snapchatters to use as the bot is integrated into the app. Our Snapchat+ community can send us feedback on the chatbot at any time so that we can continuously develop and optimize it to always offer them the best version of a personal assistant.
"We are convinced that in the future, we will not only talk to our friends and family every day, but also experience the benefits of AI in our daily lives."
nextMedia: Why is it important for Snap to launch its own chatbot?
Götz Trillhaas : Many people already use AI in their everyday lives - whether in the form of a voice assistant, LLM-based translator or via the chatbot in a company's online store. We are convinced that in the future, we will not only talk to our friends and family every day, but will also experience the benefits of AI in our daily lives. As a messaging service, we are well positioned for this. We have been investing heavily in AI technologies for years. AI and machine learning are also fundamental technologies that underpin our camera functions, augmented reality platform and Lenses. It is a technology that we want to continue to expand in order to always offer our users up-to-date and simple solutions.
nextMedia: What should "My AI" be able to do in the future? Should the areas of application be expanded?
Götz Trillhaas : The current version of My AI is a first step for us in the field of generative AI. While My AI is initially only available to Snapchat+ subscribers, the aim is to make the bot available to all 750 million monthly Snapchatters. We also plan to further optimize My AI based on feedback from our Snapchat+ subscribers and make it even more personal and relevant.
nextMedia: Where do you see the greater potential? AI or Metaverse and why?
Götz Trillhaas: I am convinced that people don't want to live in a computer or a virtual world. They love the real world, interacting with family and friends, discovering real things, learning about them and having real experiences. The greatest potential of technologies such as AI or augmented reality lies in augmenting the real world and adding an emotional charge to experiences. At Snap, we find this more exciting than developing another completely virtual reality.
