The new "AI friend" feature of Instagram would be customised by users based on their choice and then conversed with, based on screenshots that app researcher Alessandro Paluzzi shared. According to screenshots, the AI can be chatted with by the users to "answer questions, talk through any challenges, brainstorm ideas and much more.".

Screenshots above indicate that users could select the gender and age of their chatbot. Thirdly, the users can choose the ethnicity and personality of their AI. In this regard, your AI friend can be "reserved," "enthusiastic," "creative," "witty," "pragmatic," or "empowering."

You can personalise your AI friend even further by choosing their interests that will "influence its personality and the nature of its conversations," according to screenshots. Options include "DIY," "animals," "career," "education," "entertainment," "music," "nature" and much more.

After you pick what you would like, you then get to choose an avatar and a name for your AI friend. From there, you are taken to a window where you would click a button that initiates conversation with the AI.

Representative Instagram did not comment on this. However, as always, features that are yet to be released will either still come to the public one day or change during the development process.

It's dangerous that the social network, apparently in a path of development and roll out, introduces an AI chatbot promoting itself as a "friend" to millions. According to Julia Stoyanovich, director of New York University's Centre for Responsible AI, and associate professor at computer science and engineering, generative AI makes it hard for the users to differentiate between humans.

"If not the largest, one of the larger problems with how we're using generative AI today is that we are deceived into believing we are interacting with another human," Stoyanovich said. "We are deceived into believing that the thing on the other end of the line is connecting with us. That it has empathy.". We open ourselves to it and leave ourselves vulnerable to manipulation or disappointment. This is one of the peculiar risks of AI's anthropomorphism, as we call it.

For example, when one asked what forms of protection the user should be given with respect to risks, Stoyanovich replied, "Whenever people interact with AI, they have to know that it's an AI they are interacting with, not another human. This is the most basic kind of transparency that we should demand.".

The feature of the "AI friend" has been developed as controversies around AI chatbots have been emerging in the last year. Over the summer, a U.K. court heard the case of a man who claimed that an AI chatbot had encouraged him to try and kill late Queen Elizabeth days before he broke into the grounds of Windsor Castle. In March, a widow reported that an AI chatbot was the reason a Belgian man who died by suicide was coerced into killing himself.

Other social media platforms have launched AI chatbots, with varying success. For instance, Snapchat launched its "My AI" chatbot in February, which received widespread criticism due to the fact that it lacked proper age-gating protections; the result was that the chatbot was found chatting to minors about such topics as covering up the odor of weed and setting the mood for sex.

It's unclear what AI tools Instagram would rely on to power the "AI friend," but as generative AI explodes, Meta has started weaving the tech into its family of apps already. Last month, the parent company launched 28 AI chatbots that users can message across Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp. Some of the chatbots are portrayed by prominent names like Kendall Jenner, Snoop Dogg, Tom Brady, and Naomi Osaka. It should be said that the rollout of the AI personas wasn't entirely surprising given that Paluzzi reported in June that the social media giant was developing AI chatbots.

Unlike the "AI friend" chatbot with which one can talk on any topic, such interactive AI personas are designed for different interactions. For instance, the AI chat that Kendall Jenner acts through, called Billie, is geared up as an elder sister who can provide life advice to the young users.

The new "AI friend" chat that seems to be in development by Instagram appears to be designed for more open-ended conversations.