Spotted! Instagram, the popular social media platform owned by Meta, might be venturing into the world of AI chatbots. A leaked screenshot shared by app researcher Alessandro Paluzzi on Twitter suggests that Instagram is working on a feature that would incorporate chatbots capable of answering questions, providing advice, and assisting users in writing messages. The screenshot also indicates that users will have the option to select from a range of "30 AI personalities" to find the one that resonates with them the most.
#Instagram is working on bringing AI Agents (Bots :robot_face:) to your chats for a more fun and engaging experience :eyes:
— Alessandro Paluzzi (@alex193a) June 5, 2023
:information_source: AI Agents will be able to answer questions and give advice.
You'll be able to choose from 30 different personalities. pic.twitter.com/4eWLBbvs8w
Although Meta has yet to make any official announcements regarding this potential addition to Instagram, the introduction of chatbots aligns with the company's previous statements regarding its AI aspirations. In February, Meta's CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, disclosed that the company was actively developing AI personas to aid people in various ways and was exploring methods to make these chatbots accessible through text conversations, similar to the chat in WhatsApp and Messenger.
Instagram wouldn't be the first social media platform to explore the potential of chatbots as an engaging feature. Snapchat, for instance, launched its own "My AI" chatbot, powered by OpenAI's ChatGPT, earlier this year. Recently, Tiktok also broke into the race by releasing its AI chatbot Tako. Furthermore, websites like Character.ai have gained significant popularity by enabling users to interact with chatbots based on popular fictional characters. Even chatbots originally designed for non-social purposes have found adoption in social engagement. Microsoft's Bing chatbot, for example, surprised and entertained users with its peculiar conversational style upon its recent release.
The main challenge for companies is to create a chatbot that maintains fun and interesting communication without being offensive or crossing the line of safe interaction, for example, by encouraging users to do dangerous or wrong things. Whether Instagram will manage to do this remains the biggest mystery for us.
Similarly, it remains uncertain whether Meta actually intends to release these chatbots on Instagram and what security measures it will implement. However, it's worth noting that Paluzzi, the leaker behind the above screenshot, has a reputable history of revealing upcoming app features, such as the BeReal clone on Instagram and the co-authoring feature on Twitter.
