UK Issues warning to Snap regarding ‘My AI’ chatbot

The UK's Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) investigation revealed that Snap did not sufficiently identify and evaluate risks for several million 'My AI' users in the UK, including children aged 13 to 17.

London: Snap, the parent company of Snapchat, has been issued a preliminary enforcement notice in the UK over potential failure to properly assess the privacy risks posed by its generative AI chatbot ‘My AI’.

The investigation by the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) found that Snap failed to adequately identify and assess the risks to several million ‘My AI’ users in the UK including children aged 13 to 17.

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If a final enforcement notice were to be adopted, Snap may be required to stop processing data in connection with ‘My AI’.

This means not offering the ‘My AI’ product to UK users pending Snap carrying out an adequate risk assessment, the UK watchdog said in a statement.

“The provisional findings of our investigation suggest a worrying failure by Snap to adequately identify and assess the privacy risks to children and other users before launching ‘My AI’,” said John Edwards, Information Commissioner.

“We have been clear that organisations must consider the risks associated with AI, alongside the benefits. The preliminary enforcement notice shows we will take action in order to protect UK consumers’ privacy rights,” Edwards added.

Snap launched the ‘My AI’ feature for UK Snapchat+ subscribers in February 2023, with a roll out to its wider Snapchat user base in the UK in April.

The chatbot feature, powered by OpenAI’s GPT technology, marked the first example of generative AI embedded into a major messaging platform in the UK.

As of May, Snapchat had 21 million monthly active users in the UK.

The issue of this preliminary enforcement notice follows an ICO reminder to companies developing or using generative AI that they should be considering their data protection obligations from the outset.