LONDON: Snap Inc. on Wednesday said its artificial intelligence chatbot will now be able to respond to users’ messages with a fully AI-generated image, as the owner of photo messaging app Snapchat deepens its work in AI technology.
The announcement came at Snap’s annual Partner Summit. The company aims to use the technology to speed up its development of augmented reality (AR) features, or computerized images overlayed on top of photos and videos of the real world.
Generative AI has captured the tech industry’s focus in recent months and can generate original text or photos in response to prompts. Snap’s chatbot, called My AI, which can help users with everything from writing poems to searching for information, was built using startup OpenAI’s ChatGPT technology.
My AI is now available free to all Snapchat users and can be invoked to respond to questions in conversations between friends on Snapchat, Snap said on Wednesday. The chatbot was first rolled out to users who pay $3.99 a month for the company’s premium subscription Snapchat+.
My AI could help users explore more parts of the Snapchat app by recommending lenses, which can add effects to photos and videos, or use the app’s map feature to recommend real-world places to visit, said Evan Spiegel, chief executive of Snap, in an interview.
“This is the first time we’re bringing AI into communication, which is the core of our service,” he said. “People are really using My AI as a creative tool.”
My AI’s ability to respond to users with its own AI-generated images will be available first on Snapchat+, which has reached 3 million subscribers, Snap said.
As AI chatbots have grown, so have concerns about whether AI could plagiarize published works, provide inaccurate information or return harmful responses to queries.
Snap said it added new safety guard-rails to My AI, including temporarily restricting a user’s access to the chatbot if they repeatedly ask it inappropriate or harmful questions.
Snap analyzes conversations with My AI and has found that 99.5 percent of the chatbot’s responses adhere to Snapchat’s community guidelines, Spiegel said.
He added that My AI will now also take a user’s age into consideration “to make sure the conversation is age-appropriate.”
On Wednesday, the Santa Monica, California-based company also unveiled new AR mirrors which can be installed in stores to help customers virtually try on clothing items or see which accessories would match their outfit.
Retailers Nike and Men’s Warehouse are using the mirrors in some stores, Snap said.
The mirrors are part of an enterprise division Snap launched last month to help other companies build AR experiences for their own apps and websites. The venture could also help Snap diversify beyond digital advertising, which currently makes up the majority of its revenue.
Snap expands AI chatbot with ability to create images
https://arab.news/nj7nz
Snap expands AI chatbot with ability to create images
- My AI chatbot helps users to better explore app's features
On International Women’s Day, activist Abia Akram urges women with disabilities not to hide
- With over two decades of advocacy, Akram says disability is her identity to be celebrated
- Women with disabilities face four times higher GBV risk, often overlooked by rights movements
ISLAMABAD: On this International Women’s Day, Abia Akram has a message for young women with disabilities: do not hide.
Born with a physical mobility impairment, the 40-year-old Pakistani activist has spent more than two decades advocating for the rights of women with disabilities while working with governments and international organizations to push for greater inclusion and a rights-based approach to disability.
For Akram, International Women’s Day is also an opportunity to challenge stigma and encourage women with disabilities to speak openly about their identities and experiences.
“I would say disability is nothing to worry about, and it’s not an issue that we need to address,” she said. “It’s just a thing to celebrate it, with all its diversity and impact. There’s no need to worry about disability, just enjoy life with it.”
Akram’s advocacy journey began in 1997, when public perceptions of disability in the region were often shaped by stereotypes representing two extremes.
“They are very close to Allah, so we have to respect them,” she said, recalling one such view. “Or on the other extreme, people were thinking they are a punishment.”
As a woman from a developing country without a “strong background,” she said the fight for recognition and rights came with its own challenges.
In 2009, she founded the National Forum of Women with Disabilities, an initiative that helped bring attention to the challenges faced by women and girls with disabilities who were often overlooked even within their own families.
“Many parents used to pray that their daughters die before them, because there was no support system available,” she said.
Her own experience, however, was different. She credits her parents for encouraging her education and independence from an early age.
“My parents were really supportive because they were telling me like education is the most important thing. If you are qualified, if you are educated, then you have the world to contribute to.”
Today, Akram’s work extends beyond Pakistan. She serves as chair of the Global Forum on the Leadership of Women with Disabilities and is a trustee for Sightsavers, working with organizations including the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth &
Development Office (FCDO) and humanitarian groups to promote a shift from a medical model of disability to a rights-based approach.
She is also currently chair of the Aging Disability Diversity Task Force, chief executive of the National Forum of Women with Disabilities and an executive member of the Commonwealth Disability Forum.
Akram says women with disabilities often face multiple layers of discrimination — within their families, in education, in employment and in public life.
According to advocacy data she cited, women with disabilities experience four times greater gender-based violence (GBV) and sexual harassment than women without disabilities.
Her work includes training programs that address systemic barriers and collaboration with government institutions such as Pakistan’s National Assembly, the Ministry of Human Rights and the National Commission on the Status of Women.
In recent years, Akram has also focused on using technology to address these challenges.
Last month at the Zero Project Conference in Vienna, she received a global award for “Noor AI,” an accessible mobile application designed to assist women with disabilities who are survivors of gender-based violence.
Akram argues that the difficulties often associated with disability arise not from individuals themselves but from environments that fail to accommodate different needs.
She illustrates the point with an analogy comparing wheelchairs to cars.
“Are you using a wheelchair? But you came in a car, which has the wheels and the chair. So, you are also using the wheelchair, but you park your wheelchair outside and mine is inside,” she said.
“It’s just about the diversity, accepting the diversity, not fixing the person.”
In Pakistan, she says there has been legislative progress in protecting the rights of persons with disabilities, pointing to the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act 2020 in Islamabad and similar laws in Sindh and Balochistan.
However, she believes more work is needed in regions such as Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to strengthen legal protections and implementation.
Despite receiving international recognition, including the Zero Project Award and the Human Rights Award, Akram says such honors mainly reinforce her sense of responsibility.
She remains particularly focused on addressing what she describes as “double discrimination,” where women with disabilities are sometimes overlooked both within mainstream women’s movements and within male-dominated disability advocacy spaces.
As the world marks International Women’s Day, Akram says the goal must remain justice, empowerment and equality that includes everyone.
“Disability is my identity and I’m very proud of it. It’s about how we take that identity in a positive way, in a dignified way,” she said.
“It’s not about just celebrating, but also taking that positive initiative, the commitment, like how we can change the life of other people.”
