While playing around with artificial intelligence chatbots can be fun, it's less so when AI is pushed in your face (or on your face, in the case of Snapchat). The social media photo-messaging app is mainly used to send funny photos, connect with people far away or flirt. There's no reason for AI to sneak into your chats or cheeky pics.
Snapchat's chatbot, My AI, lets you ask questions, seek advice and carry on a conversation. It's powered by GPT models from ChatGPT maker OpenAI and Google's Gemini.
It's easy to accidentally click on My AI because it sits at the top of your chats. Users have been getting snappy about the AI tool since it rolled out in April 2023, because you have to be a paying user to disable it. The AI bot popping up midchat with a friend is annoying and alarming.
See also: How to Stop Snapchat's My Selfie Feature From Using Your Face in Ads
However, updates in September last year included more promising AI features for Snapchatters, as the app started to feel more like Google Lens and the new Apple Visual Intelligence. For example, you can use it to snap a selfie to see what you might look like in old age, translate menus from foreign languages, interpret confusing parking signs and identify a type of plant.
I tried the plant test myself. It thought my money tree was sushi.
While it's fun to test AI's capabilities and confusion, if you're all too conscious of it sitting in your chats and stories, here are some steps you can take to ease your mind.
How to block Snapchat's My AI from Stories
If you open the Snapchat app, you can tap on your avatar in the top left corner and then tap the gear icon for Settings. Scroll down to View My Story and tap that, and then tap Custom. Here, you can select who to block from seeing new Snaps you add to your Story.
Your friends are listed alphabetically, so scroll down to the M section and select My AI and hit Block. Otherwise, by default it's automatically granted access to your Stories.
Sneaky. It doesn't "conveniently" sit up at the top, like it does in the Chat section.
This might be fine for you if you're OK with the chatbot accessing Stories, with the goal of providing more accurate responses to requests. But if it doesn't sit right with you, you can toggle it off.
You can also go to the Chat section, tap the My AI chat at the top, tap on its avatar, tap the three dots in the right top corner, hit Privacy Settings and toggle off access to My Story.
Go back to check that it's been blocked.
How to delete your data from My AI
Now that it's out of your Stories, delete your data from My AI. Again, the default setting is to save your conversations, so you have to turn it off.
To delete all historical data, go to Settings again, then hit Clear My AI Data. Hit Confirm.
Easy peasy.
How to delete Snapchat's My AI altogether
If you're a Snapchat Plus subscriber – which is $1 for the first month, then $4 per month after that – you can delete My AI altogether or unpin it. Simply hold down My AI in Chat, click on Chat Settings, then Clear from Chat Feed.
To unpin it, tap on the Snapchat Plus banner in your Profile and toggle My AI from Pinned to Unpinned.
See also: I Tried Snap's New Standalone AR Glasses, Which Do Mixed Reality and AI and Work Outdoors
However, if you like AI features, you can access exclusive subscriber-only benefits such as the ability to edit and enhance Snaps using generative AI tools and to generate unlimited AI replies and captions.
As we see more AI integrations within social media platforms, some of you will adopt it while others will boycott tools that force it in your face. Platforms like Snapchat are capitalizing on this annoyance, making no-AI features part of the paid membership, while others like on Instagram can't be turned off. AI will continue to transform the social media landscape, and we'll have to compromise cost or convenience.
But as we've seen with Snapchat, there are workarounds to still enjoy these tools, if you don't want to pay or use the AI.