LONDON, Oct 6 Reuters Snapchat may have failed to properly assess privacy risks to children from its artificial intelligence chatbot, Britain39;s data watchdog said on Friday, adding it would consider the company39;s response before making any final enforcement decision.

The Information Commissioner39;s Office ICO said if the U.S. company fails to adequately address the regulator39;s concerns, My AI, launched in April, could be banned in the UK.

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 39;My AI39;, Information Commissioner John Edwards said.

The findings do not necessarily mean the instant messaging app used largely by younger people has breached British data protection laws or that the ICO will end up issuing an enforcement notice, the regulator said.

Snap said it was reviewing the ICO39;s notice and that it was committed to user privacy.

My AI went through a robust legal and privacy review process before being made publicly available, a Snap spokesperson said. We will continue to work constructively with the ICO to ensure they39;re comfortable with our risk assessment procedures.

The ICO is investigating how My AI processes the personal data of Snapchat39;s roughly 21 million UK users, including children aged 1317.

My AI is powered by OpenAI39;s ChatGPT, the most famous example of generative AI, which policymakers globally…