Terrified Snapchat users ‘looking to delete app’ after My AI makes eerie posts and ‘ignores messages’
SNAPCHAT users have been trying to delete their accounts after the platform's My AI feature malfunctioned.
Google search data from recently revealed that online searches for "delete Snapchat" increased by a staggering 1,019 percent worldwide last week.
The uptick is due to Snapchat users likely feeling uneasy after the platform suffered a malfunction with its My AI chatbot on August 15.
WHAT IS MY AI?
The My AI chatbot was developed by Snapchat to help users with a variety of tasks.
These include answering queries, making recommendations, creating material, and assisting with language translation.
Snapchat launched the feature for Snapchat+ subscribers in February.
WHAT HAPPENED WITH MY AI?
The app usually just responds to messages but last week it shared an eerie image.
In the story, the photo showed what appeared like a wall that could be seen for a few seconds.
Snapchat users also reported that during that time, My AI also failed to respond to chats.
This made the situation seem even more mysterious, leaving many wondering if the platform had been hacked.
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In a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, Snapchat said the incident was nothing more than a "temporary outage."
Since then, the service is back up and running as normal, however, some others feel compelled to leave the platform entirely.
THE NUMBERS
On top of the term "delete Snapchat" skyrocketing, searches for "how to delete Snapchat" have also risen by 1,239 percent worldwide.
Meanwhile, the hashtag #SnapchatAI currently has over 487 million views on TikTok.
A spokesperson for NoDepositDaily.com commented on the findings: "The My AI feature is designed to have conversations and dialogue like users to feel like a person.
"Some users, however, have viewed this as being too much like a human and are raising concerns about how My AI acted on its own posting a story, causing debate around the use of Artificial Intelligence on the platform."
HOW TO DELETE SNAPCHAT
If you're interested in deleting your Snapchat account you can follow the steps for iOS below:
- Tap the settings button in the Profile screen to open Settings
- Scroll down to 'Account Actions'
- Tap 'Delete Account'
- Follow the steps to delete your account
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For Android users, go to the and type in the username and password for the account you want to delete.