The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has issued Snap, the parent company behind Snapchat, a preliminary enforcement notice over the privacy risks posed by its generative AI chatbot ‘My AI’.

As a result, Snapchat could face a multi-million pound fine or even be forced to shut down the feature in the UK. 

The ICO issued the notice after conducting an investigation into the tool, launched in spring 2023. The chatbot, powered by OpenAI’s GPT technology, marked the first example of generative AI embedded into a major messaging platform in the UK. 

However, the ICO has found that the risk assessment Snap conducted before it launched My AI did not “adequately assess the data protection risks” to users, particularly children aged 13 to 17. 

“The provisional findings of our investigation suggest a worrying failure by Snap to adequately identify and assess the privacy risks to children and other users before launching My AI,” information commissioner John...