Social media users and parents are voicing concern over Snapchat’s new AI bot. The social media company recently rolled out its “My AI” chatbot to all of its users. The chatbot is powered by the viral AI chatbot tool ChatGPT, but Snapchat’s version allows users to customize the chatbot’s name, design a custom Bitmoji avatar for it, and bring it into conversations with friends.
According to CNN, “the new tool is facing backlash not only from parents but also from some Snapchat users who are bombarding the app with bad reviews in the app store and criticisms on social media over privacy concerns, ‘creepy’ exchanges and an inability to remove the feature from their chat feed unless they pay for a premium subscription.”
If you would like more context on this matter, please consider Vikram R. Bhargava, assistant professor of strategic management and public policy at the George Washington University School of Business. His research centers around topics including artificial intelligence, the future of work, technology addiction, mass social media outrage, autonomous vehicles, and other topics related to digital technology policy.
Bhargava authored a research article in Business Ethics Quarterly, titled "Ethics of the Attention Economy: The Problem of Social Media Addiction", which dives into why scholars, policy makers, and the managers of social media companies should treat social media addiction as a serious moral problem. He argues that “addicting users to social media is impermissible because it unjustifiably harms users in a way that is both demeaning and objectionably exploitative. Importantly, the attention-economy business model of social media companies strongly incentivizes them to perpetrate this wrongdoing.”
Bhargava can speak to the role businesses and social media companies play in using algorithms and other AI tools to make their products more addictive, like this new chatbot, as well as the heightened risks of deploying AI in this way on a social media platform, especially among younger audiences.
If you would like to speak with Prof. Bhargava, please contact GW Media Relations Specialist Cate Douglass at [email protected].
-GW-
