Leaked images from the discerning eye of app researcher Alessandro Paluzzi hint at Instagram's quiet development of an AI chatbot.
The seeming leaks reflect in-progress developments in the app which could be shipped, or could not be shipped. These AI agents can apparently answer questions or give advice. As for the variety of personalities users can engage with, there are reportedly 30 different AI personalities, and they can even help users write messages.
#Instagram is developing AI Agents (Bots ????) to make your conversations more fun and engaging, right?
ℹ️ 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
AI chatbots for other social platforms have already been rolled out with mixed results. In the case of Snapchat, which first launched its My AI chatbot powered by Open AI's GPT technology, the product was devoid of proper age-gating features. So it ended up telling a reporter, using an account registered as a teenager, how to douse the smell of alcohol and weed and set the mood for sex. Snapchat also recently launched its paywalled My AI Snaps feature, which lets the AI send you generated images. At launch, the product doesn't work very well.
It is not known what AI tools Instagram would utilise to power its chatbots. However, as the business of generative AI booms, Meta, the parent of Instagram, has been leveraging those tools in many established facets of its business like ad sales. In May, Meta announced AI Sandbox, an aid to advertisers for creating alternative versions of adverts, as well as background images, and image cropping. The firm also announced a proprietary AI coding tool called CodeCompose but is not publicly available.
Instagram did not comment prior to the writing of this article.
While on the AI hype train, Instagram is also working on a Twitter competitor. From leaked information about the text-based app codenamed Barcelona, this will be a stand-alone app that integrates with Instagram. According to this report, at the time of writing, Instagram declined to comment on the authenticity of the rumors but did not deny it. And if true, Instagram's Twitter clone should be coming this summer.