Snapchat’s own AI chatbot has put social media users around the globe into DEFCON 1 after posting a now-deleted story, seemingly of its own accord.
It’s a very cryptic video - barely two seconds of what looks to be a purple and brown wall, a piece of paper on a desk, or even a Neapolitan ice cream.
We’ve all wondered when artificial intelligence would become sentient and it’s looking like today is the day, team.
It had never posted a story before, but that’s not the only weird behaviour it’s displayed. It normally replies instantly, but people have found the robot is doing the extremely dishonourable act of leaving people on seen.
ignore the name
The last time I was this scared looking at a ‘seen’ was checking the phone the morning after a blackout night. Not fun.
Social media has been flooded with people sharing their horror at the bot seemingly gaining consciousness, as well as their futile attempts at trying to get the chatbot to respond.
There are calls to “shut down” the AI “NOW”, people offended that the chatbot is “treating them like a side bitch”, but most of all there is utter and hopeless confusion.
I just asked the chatbot if “everything was okay” and it replied that it “encountered a technical issue” - which is better than a seen I guess.
spit it out bro
Neither the Snapchat support nor the official Snapchat accounts have posted anything on the matter yet.
As of now, we are left with far more questions than answers: Is the AI sentient? What is the story of? How dare you leave millions of people on seen? What did I do on that blackout night out?
We’ll keep you posted on whether this is the beginning of the robot uprising, a lonely robot just looking for a connection, or if it really is just a technical issue.
Either way, this day will be coming up in the end-of-year recap for sure.
