Snapchat users react with confusion after the app's AI chatbot mysteriously posts its own story and then refuses to answer questions about it

• Snapchat users are taking to X to share their reactions after the app malfunctioned Tuesday.
• Snapchat's My AI posted its own story and was not responding to messages, according to users.
• Snap told Insider that the AI chatbot had experienced an outage that had since been fixed.

What would an AI post to its own social-media story if it could?

That question seemed to be answered for some Snapchat users on Tuesday when they opened the popular app and were greeted by a story posted by the company's AI chatbot, called My AI.

But the story, which was just an image devoid of any text, begged more questions. Was it a photo of a ceiling? A multi-colored rectangle?

Exactly what the AI's story showed wasn't clear, and the impacted Snapchat users quickly took to other social media platforms to post about being confused and slightly frightened.

One user posted screenshots to X, formerly Twitter, showing their attempts to ask Snapchat's AI what was going on.

The AI, which typically responds nearly instantly like other AI chatbots, remained uncharacteristically silent.

"Hello I confronted Snapchat AI now she's not replying what is thisssss," the user posted in all caps.

"Someone tell me why tf my Snapchat ai is posting Snapchat stories lmaooo," another Snapchat user posted to X.

One X user Brian Long, who posted his reaction to the situation, told Insider that he believes that My AI's change in behavior could have been "just a marketing stunt" by Snapchat. 

"I do think it's kind of scary that we are getting closer and closer to the time where something we create follows its own mind," Long said.

However, a Snap spokesperson told Insider that the unusual behavior from My AI was due to an outage that has since been resolved.

Snapchat says in an online FAQ it is "constantly working to improve and evolve My AI," but it also warns that "My AI's responses may include biased, incorrect, harmful, or misleading content."

When My AI first came out, many people took to social media to share their interesting, and sometimes strange, conversations with the bot, but this appears to be the first time the bot has posted a story. My AI is powered by OpenAI and uses the same underlying technology as ChatGPT.

The confusing result of the outage may have even scared away some Snapchat users altogether — or at least made them consider ditching the app. There was a notable spike in searches for "delete Snapchat" on Tuesday, according to Google Trends data.