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Cops lure pedophiles with AI pics of teen girl. Ethical triumph or new disaster?

ai csam, AI image generators, Artificial Intelligence, child sexual abuse materials, csam, New Mexico, online child safety, Policy, Snapchat / /

Who is she? —

New Mexico sued Snapchat after using AI to reveal child safety risks.

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Cops lure pedophiles with AI pics of teen girl. Ethical triumph or new disaster?

Aurich Lawson | Getty Images

Cops are now using AI to generate images of fake kids, which are helping them catch child predators online, a lawsuit filed by the state of New Mexico against Snapchat revealed this week.

According to the complaint, the New Mexico Department of Justice launched an undercover investigation in recent months to prove that Snapchat “is a primary social media platform for sharing child sexual abuse material (CSAM)” and sextortion of minors, because its “algorithm serves up children to adult predators.”

As part of their probe, an investigator “set up a decoy account for a 14-year-old girl, Sexy14Heather.”

  • An AI-generated image of “Sexy14Heather” included in the New Mexico complaint.

  • An image of a Snapchat avatar for “Sexy14Heather” included in the New Mexico complaint.

Despite Snapchat setting the fake minor’s profile to private and the account not adding any followers, “Heather” was soon recommended widely to “dangerous accounts, including ones named ‘child.rape’ and ‘pedo_lover10,’ in addition to others that are even more explicit,” the New Mexico DOJ said in a press release.

And after “Heather” accepted a follow request from just one account, the recommendations got even worse. “Snapchat suggested over 91 users, including numerous adult users whose accounts included or sought to exchange sexually explicit content,” New Mexico’s complaint alleged.

“Snapchat is a breeding ground for predators to collect sexually explicit images of children and to find, groom, and extort them,” New Mexico’s complaint alleged.

Posing as “Sexy14Heather,” the investigator swapped messages with adult accounts, including users who “sent inappropriate messages and explicit photos.” In one exchange with a user named “50+ SNGL DAD 4 YNGR,” the fake teen “noted her age, sent a photo, and complained about her parents making her go to school,” prompting the user to send “his own photo” as well as sexually suggestive chats. Other accounts asked “Heather” to “trade presumably explicit content,” and several “attempted to coerce the underage persona into sharing CSAM,” the New Mexico DOJ said.

“Heather” also tested out Snapchat’s search tool, finding that “even though she used no sexually explicit language, the algorithm must have determined that she was looking for CSAM” when she searched for other teen users. It “began recommending users associated with trading” CSAM, including accounts with usernames such as “naughtypics,” “addfortrading,” “teentr3de,” “gayhorny13yox,” and “teentradevirgin,” the investigation found, “suggesting that these accounts also were involved in the dissemination of CSAM.”

This novel use of AI was prompted after Albuquerque police indicted a man, Alejandro Marquez, who pled guilty and was sentenced to 18 years for raping an 11-year-old girl he met through Snapchat’s Quick Add feature in 2022, New Mexico’s complaint said. More recently, the New Mexico complaint said, an Albuquerque man, Jeremy Guthrie, was arrested and sentenced this summer for “raping a 12-year-old girl who he met and cultivated over Snapchat.”

In the past, police have posed as kids online to catch child predators using photos of younger-looking adult women or even younger photos of police officers. Using AI-generated images could be considered a more ethical way to conduct these stings, a lawyer specializing in sex crimes, Carrie Goldberg, told Ars, because “an AI decoy profile is less problematic than using images of an actual child.”

But using AI could complicate investigations and carry its own ethical concerns, Goldberg warned, as child safety experts and law enforcement warn that the Internet is increasingly swamped with AI-generated CSAM.

“In terms of AI being used for entrapment, defendants can defend themselves if they say the government induced them to commit a crime that they were not already predisposed to commit,” Goldberg told Ars. “Of course, it would be ethically concerning if the government were to create deepfake AI child sexual abuse material (CSAM), because those images are illegal, and we don’t want more CSAM in circulation.”

Experts have warned that AI image generators should never be trained on datasets that combine images of real kids with explicit content to avoid any instances of AI-generated CSAM, which is particularly harmful when it appears to depict a real kid or an actual victim of child abuse.

In the New Mexico complaint, only one AI-generated image is included, so it’s unclear how widely the state’s DOJ is using AI or if cops are possibly using more advanced methods to generate multiple images of the same fake kid. It’s also unclear what ethical concerns were weighed before cops began using AI decoys.

The New Mexico DOJ did not respond to Ars’ request for comment.

Goldberg told Ars that “there ought to be standards within law enforcement with how to use AI responsibly,” warning that “we are likely to see more entrapment defenses centered around AI if the government is using the technology in a manipulative way to pressure somebody into committing a crime.”

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US woman arrested, accused of targeting young boys in $1.7M sextortion scheme

Apple Pay, cash app, child safety, department of justice, fbi, Instagram, Policy, sextortion, Snapchat, teen sextortion / /

Preventing leaks —

FBI has warned of significant spike in teen sextortion in 2024.

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US woman arrested, accused of targeting young boys in $1.7M sextortion scheme

A 28-year-old Delaware woman, Hadja Kone, was arrested after cops linked her to an international sextortion scheme targeting thousands of victims—mostly young men and including some minors, the US Department of Justice announced Friday.

Citing a recently unsealed indictment, the DOJ alleged that Kone and co-conspirators “operated an international, financially motivated sextortion and money laundering scheme in which the conspirators engaged in cyberstalking, interstate threats, money laundering, and wire fraud.”

Through the scheme, conspirators allegedly sought to extort about $6 million from “thousands of potential victims,” the DOJ said, and ultimately successfully extorted approximately $1.7 million.

Young men from the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom fell for the scheme, the DOJ said. They were allegedly targeted by scammers posing as “young, attractive females online,” who initiated conversations by offering to send sexual photographs or video recordings, then invited victims to “web cam” or “live video chat” sessions.

“Unbeknownst to the victims, during the web cam/live video chats,” the DOJ said, the scammers would “surreptitiously” record the victims “as they exposed their genitals and/or engaged in sexual activity.” The scammers then threatened to publish the footage online or else share the footage with “the victims’ friends, family members, significant others, employers, and co-workers,” unless payments were sent, usually via Cash App or Apple Pay.

Much of these funds were allegedly transferred overseas to Kone’s accused co-conspirators, including 22-year-old Siaka Ouattara of the West African country the Ivory Coast. Ouattara was arrested by Ivorian authorities in February, the DOJ said.

“If convicted, Kone and Ouattara each face a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for each conspiracy count and money laundering count, and a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for each wire fraud count,” the DOJ said.

The FBI has said that it has been cracking down on sextortion after “a huge increase in the number of cases involving children and teens being threatened and coerced into sending explicit images online.” In 2024, the FBI announced a string of arrests, but none of the schemes so far have been as vast or far-reaching as the scheme that Kone allegedly helped operate.

In January, the FBI issued a warning about the “growing threat” to minors, warning parents that victims are “typically males between the ages of 14 to 17, but any child can become a victim.” Young victims are at risk of self-harm or suicide, the FBI said.

“From October 2021 to March 2023, the FBI and Homeland Security Investigations received over 13,000 reports of online financial sextortion of minors,” the FBI’s announcement said. “The sextortion involved at least 12,600 victims—primarily boys—and led to at least 20 suicides.”

For years, reports have shown that payment apps have been used in sextortion schemes with seemingly little intervention. When it comes to protecting minors, sextortion protections seem sparse, as neither Apple Pay nor Cash App appear to have any specific policies to combat the issue. However, both apps only allow minors over 13 to create accounts with authorized adult supervisors.

Apple and Cash App did not immediately respond to Ars’ request to comment.

Instagram, Snapchat add sextortion protections

Some social media platforms are responding to the spike in sextortion targeting minors.

Last year, Snapchat released a report finding that nearly two-thirds of more than 6,000 teens and young adults in six countries said that “they or their friends have been targeted in online ‘sextortion’ schemes” across many popular social media platforms. As a result of that report and prior research, Snapchat began allowing users to report sextortion specifically.

“Under the reporting menu for ‘Nudity or sexual content,’ a Snapchatter’s first option is to click, ‘They leaked/are threatening to leak my nudes,'” the report said.

Additionally, the DOJ’s announcement of Kone’s arrest came one day after Instagram confirmed that it was “testing new features to help protect young people from sextortion and intimate image abuse, and to make it more difficult for potential scammers and criminals to find and interact with teens.”

One feature will by default blur out sexual images shared over direct message, which Instagram said would protect minors from “scammers who may send nude images to trick people into sending their own images in return.” Instagram will also provide safety tips to anyone receiving a sexual image over DM, “encouraging them to report any threats to share their private images and reminding them that they can say no to anything that makes them feel uncomfortable.”

Perhaps more impactful, Instagram claimed that it was “developing technology to help identify where accounts may potentially be engaging in sextortion scams, based on a range of signals that could indicate sextortion behavior.” Having better signals helps Instagram to make it “harder for potential sextortion accounts to message or interact with people,” the platform said, by hiding those requests. Instagram also by default blocks adults from messaging users under 16 in some countries and under 18 in others.

Instagram said that other tech companies have also started “sharing more signals about sextortion accounts” through Lantern, a program that Meta helped to found with the Tech Coalition to prevent child sexual exploitation. Snapchat also participates in the cross-platform research.

According to the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Norfolk field office, Brian Dugan, “one of the best lines of defense to stopping a crime like this is to educate our most vulnerable on common warning signs, as well as empowering them to come forward if they are ever victimized.”

Both Instagram and Snapchat said they were also increasing sextortion resources available to educate young users.

“We know that sextortion is a risk teens and adults face across a range of platforms, and have developed tools and resources to help combat it,” Snap’s spokesperson told Ars. “We have extra safeguards for teens to protect against unwanted contact, and don’t offer public friend lists, which we know can be used to extort people. We also want to help young people learn the signs of this type of crime, and recently launched in-app resources to raise awareness of how to spot and report it.”

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Facebook secretly spied on Snapchat usage to confuse advertisers, court docs say

Amazon, anticompetitive behavior, Antitrust law, facebook, Google, Instagram, mark zuckerberg, Meta, online advertising, Policy, Snapchat, social media ads, youtube / /

“I can’t think of a good argument for why this is okay” —

Zuckerberg told execs to “figure out” how to spy on encrypted Snapchat traffic.

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Facebook secretly spied on Snapchat usage to confuse advertisers, court docs say

Unsealed court documents have revealed more details about a secret Facebook project initially called “Ghostbusters,” designed to sneakily access encrypted Snapchat usage data to give Facebook a leg up on its rival, just when Snapchat was experiencing rapid growth in 2016.

The documents were filed in a class-action lawsuit from consumers and advertisers, accusing Meta of anticompetitive behavior that blocks rivals from competing in the social media ads market.

“Whenever someone asks a question about Snapchat, the answer is usually that because their traffic is encrypted, we have no analytics about them,” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg (who has since rebranded his company as Meta) wrote in a 2016 email to Javier Olivan.

“Given how quickly they’re growing, it seems important to figure out a new way to get reliable analytics about them,” Zuckerberg continued. “Perhaps we need to do panels or write custom software. You should figure out how to do this.”

At the time, Olivan was Facebook’s head of growth, but now he’s Meta’s chief operating officer. He responded to Zuckerberg’s email saying that he would have the team from Onavo—a controversial traffic-analysis app acquired by Facebook in 2013—look into it.

Olivan told the Onavo team that he needed “out of the box thinking” to satisfy Zuckerberg’s request. He “suggested potentially paying users to ‘let us install a really heavy piece of software'” to intercept users’ Snapchat data, a court document shows.

What the Onavo team eventually came up with was a project internally known as “Ghostbusters,” an obvious reference to Snapchat’s logo featuring a white ghost. Later, as the project grew to include other Facebook rivals, including YouTube and Amazon, the project was called the “In-App Action Panel” (IAAP).

The IAAP program’s purpose was to gather granular insights into users’ engagement with rival apps to help Facebook develop products as needed to stay ahead of competitors. For example, two months after Zuckerberg’s 2016 email, Meta launched Stories, a Snapchat copycat feature, on Instagram, which the Motley Fool noted rapidly became a key ad revenue source for Meta.

In an email to Olivan, the Onavo team described the “technical solution” devised to help Zuckerberg figure out how to get reliable analytics about Snapchat users. It worked by “develop[ing] ‘kits’ that can be installed on iOS and Android that intercept traffic for specific sub-domains, allowing us to read what would otherwise be encrypted traffic so we can measure in-app usage,” the Onavo team said.

Olivan was told that these so-called “kits” used a “man-in-the-middle” attack typically employed by hackers to secretly intercept data passed between two parties. Users were recruited by third parties who distributed the kits “under their own branding” so that they wouldn’t connect the kits to Onavo unless they used a specialized tool like Wireshark to analyze the kits. TechCrunch reported in 2019 that sometimes teens were paid to install these kits. After that report, Facebook promptly shut down the project.

This “man-in-the-middle” tactic, consumers and advertisers suing Meta have alleged, “was not merely anticompetitive, but criminal,” seemingly violating the Wiretap Act. It was used to snoop on Snapchat starting in 2016, on YouTube from 2017 to 2018, and on Amazon in 2018, relying on creating “fake digital certificates to impersonate trusted Snapchat, YouTube, and Amazon analytics servers to redirect and decrypt secure traffic from those apps for Facebook’s strategic analysis.”

Ars could not reach Snapchat, Google, or Amazon for comment.

Facebook allegedly sought to confuse advertisers

Not everyone at Facebook supported the IAAP program. “The company’s highest-level engineering executives thought the IAAP Program was a legal, technical, and security nightmare,” another court document said.

Pedro Canahuati, then-head of security engineering, warned that incentivizing users to install the kits did not necessarily mean that users understood what they were consenting to.

“I can’t think of a good argument for why this is okay,” Canahuati said. “No security person is ever comfortable with this, no matter what consent we get from the general public. The general public just doesn’t know how this stuff works.”

Mike Schroepfer, then-chief technology officer, argued that Facebook wouldn’t want rivals to employ a similar program analyzing their encrypted user data.

“If we ever found out that someone had figured out a way to break encryption on [WhatsApp] we would be really upset,” Schroepfer said.

While the unsealed emails detailing the project have recently raised eyebrows, Meta’s spokesperson told Ars that “there is nothing new here—this issue was reported on years ago. The plaintiffs’ claims are baseless and completely irrelevant to the case.”

According to Business Insider, advertisers suing said that Meta never disclosed its use of Onavo “kits” to “intercept rivals’ analytics traffic.” This is seemingly relevant to their case alleging anticompetitive behavior in the social media ads market, because Facebook’s conduct, allegedly breaking wiretapping laws, afforded Facebook an opportunity to raise its ad rates “beyond what it could have charged in a competitive market.”

Since the documents were unsealed, Meta has responded with a court filing that said: “Snapchat’s own witness on advertising confirmed that Snap cannot ‘identify a single ad sale that [it] lost from Meta’s use of user research products,’ does not know whether other competitors collected similar information, and does not know whether any of Meta’s research provided Meta with a competitive advantage.”

This conflicts with testimony from a Snapchat executive, who alleged that the project “hamper[ed] Snap’s ability to sell ads” by causing “advertisers to not have a clear narrative differentiating Snapchat from Facebook and Instagram.” Both internally and externally, “the intelligence Meta gleaned from this project was described” as “devastating to Snapchat’s ads business,” a court filing said.

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Snapchat isn’t liable for connecting 12-year-old to convicted sex offenders

child sexual abuse materials, communications decency act, csam, Evan spiegel, kids online safety act, KOSA, Policy, Section 230, snap, Snapchat / /
Snapchat isn’t liable for connecting 12-year-old to convicted sex offenders

A judge has dismissed a complaint from a parent and guardian of a girl, now 15, who was sexually assaulted when she was 12 years old after Snapchat recommended that she connect with convicted sex offenders.

According to the court filing, the abuse that the girl, C.O., experienced on Snapchat happened soon after she signed up for the app in 2019. Through its “Quick Add” feature, Snapchat “directed her” to connect with “a registered sex offender using the profile name JASONMORGAN5660.” After a little more than a week on the app, C.O. was bombarded with inappropriate images and subjected to sextortion and threats before the adult user pressured her to meet up, then raped her. Cops arrested the adult user the next day, resulting in his incarceration, but his Snapchat account remained active for three years despite reports of harassment, the complaint alleged.

Two years later, at 14, C.O. connected with another convicted sex offender on Snapchat, a former police officer who offered to give C.O. a ride to school and then sexually assaulted her. The second offender is also currently incarcerated, the judge’s opinion noted.

The lawsuit painted a picture of Snapchat’s ongoing neglect of minors it knows are being targeted by sexual predators. Prior to C.O.’s attacks, both adult users sent and requested sexually explicit photos, seemingly without the app detecting any child sexual abuse materials exchanged on the platform. C.O. had previously reported other adult accounts sending her photos of male genitals, but Snapchat allegedly “did nothing to block these individuals from sending her inappropriate photographs.”

Among other complaints, C.O.’s lawsuit alleged that Snapchat’s algorithm for its “Quick Add” feature was the problem. It allegedly recklessly works to detect when adult accounts are seeking to connect with young girls and, by design, sends more young girls their way—continually directing sexual predators toward vulnerable targets. Snapchat is allegedly aware of these abuses and, therefore, should be held liable for harm caused to C.O., the lawsuit argued.

Although C.O.’s case raised difficult questions, Judge Barbara Bellis ultimately agreed with Snapchat that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act barred all claims and shielded Snap because “the allegations of this case fall squarely within the ambit of the immunity afforded to” platforms publishing third-party content.

According to Bellis, C.O.’s family had “clearly alleged” that Snap had failed to design its recommendations systems to block young girls from receiving messages from sexual predators. Specifically, Section 230 immunity shields Snap from liability in this case because Bellis considered the messages exchanged to be third-party content. Snapchat designing its recommendation systems to deliver content is a protected activity, Bellis ruled.

Internet law professor Eric Goldman wrote in his blog that Bellis’ “well-drafted and no-nonsense opinion” is “grounded” in precedent. Pointing to an “extremely similar” 2008 case against MySpace—”which reached the same outcome that Section 230 applies to offline sexual abuse following online messaging”—Goldman suggested that “the law has been quite consistent for a long time.”

However, as this case was being decided, a seemingly conflicting ruling in a Los Angeles court found that “Section 230 didn’t protect Snapchat from liability for allegedly connecting teens with drug dealers,” MediaPost noted. Bellis acknowledged this outlier opinion but did not appear to consider it persuasive.

Yet, at the end of her opinion, Bellis seemed to take aim at Section 230 as perhaps being too broad.

She quoted a ruling from the First Circuit Court of Appeals, which noted that some Section 230 cases, presumably like C.O.’s, are “hard” for courts not because “the legal issues defy resolution,” but because Section 230 requires that the court “deny relief to plaintiffs whose circumstances evoke outrage.” She then went on to quote an appellate court ruling on a similarly “difficult” Section 230 case that warned “without further legislative action,” there is “little” that courts can do “but join with other courts and commentators in expressing concern” with Section 230’s “broad scope.”

Ars could not immediately reach Snapchat or lawyers representing C.O.’s family for comment.

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Celebrating the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup on Snapchat

augmented reality, featured, lenses, News, Snapchat, sports, Sports & Fitness, trending / /

The 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup is on – and celebrations aren’t limited to the physical world. A number of innovative activations on Snapchat ensure that fans everywhere can feel like a part of the action.

Snap’s 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup Lenses

While AR activations can be fun, they don’t often add much real value for people actually following the sport. Snap’s USWNT (the US Women’s National Team) Team Tracker Lens uses brand new tech and classic Snapchat style to display real-time team and player information. Another lens can be used to preview Stories augmented with content from the U.S. Soccer App.

2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup Team Tracker

Curious about other teams to follow? A lens created with FIFA’s “Fancestry” quiz helps fans follow new teams based on a brief personality survey – with a unique digital jersey representing your “Fancestry.”

FIFA Fancestry lens - 2023 fifa women's world cup

Whatever team (or teams) you choose to support during 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, you can show your colors with the Across the Globe Lens with a different selfie lens for every team.

Global country fan lenses Snap - 2023 fifa women's world cup

Or, show your support for women’s sports in general with the TOGETHXR Lens. And, of course, all of the teams have their own stickers and bitmoji fashions to further customize your communications.

Togethxr Lens - 2023 fifa women's world cup

“Snapchat is honored to be a part of the 2023 World Cup,”  Snap’s Strategic Partnerships Sports Lead Emma Wakely said in a release. “Through immersive content coverage, creator collaborations, and new, innovative AR experiences, Snapchatters will have an unparalleled opportunity to express their football fandom like never before.”

Snapchat’s Playbook

Snap’s strategy for the package is an interesting play. For the most part, the engagements are more stylized than those employed last year for the (Mens) World Cup Snapchat celebrations. However, these interactions are more … interactive. Though, Snap’s Live Garment Transfer Technology does make a comeback for an AR jersey activation similar to the one we saw last year.

Perhaps the most in-depth lens in terms of interactivity is the USWNT Team Lens. This activation is most like a multi-player partnership through which Snap augmented the Superbowl last year – but that app was only for fans physically at the Superbowl. And what is AR for if not for expanding experiences to people who can’t be at one given physical location?

Don’t forget, the Snap team isn’t the only one making lenses. To find all lenses, including those made through partnerships or by independent creators, tap the explore tab on the Snapchat camera screen and search “Women’s World Cup” or “2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup.”

Celebrate the Big Games

This has just been a look at Snapchat’s AR integrations around the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup. There are also special Stories, Cameo content, Spotlight Challenges, Snap Map features, and more. So pick your team and go crazy.

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Snap Partner Summit 2023 Details Changes Coming to Snapchat and Beyond

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Snap’s annual Partner Summit is the company’s opportunity to showcase its working relationship with other brands. That includes the experiences that come out of those partnerships, as well as the hardware and software updates that drive them. The event covered a lot of ground but we’ll be looking specifically at AR-related updates and announcements.

Some of the announcements are already available for Snapchatters to explore, while others are coming soon. Even the parts of the summit that may seem boring for the average end users help to understand where the platform is going in the coming months and years. And this year’s event is extra special because it was held in person for the first time since 2019.

Snap Map and Bitmoji Features

Bitmojis, the 3D avatars used by Snapchatters for their profiles as well as in games and messages, is constantly expanding, including through new virtual fashion partnerships and this year is no different.

Digital fashions inspired by the Marvel Cinematic universe will be available soon. The avatar system itself will also be updating to allow for “realistic dimensions, shading, and lighting,” according to Vice President of Product Jack Brody.

“Bitmoji style has changed quite a bit, and they continue to evolve,” said Brody.

Snap Partner Summit 2023 - Jack Brody showing 3D Snap Map
Jack Brody showing 3D Snap Map

Brody also announced that the Snap Map is getting more updates, including more 3D locations and tags to help users find popular locations from their Snapchat communities. Users who access the app with Verizon +Play will also be getting new options for games and puzzles in calls with Snapchat’s connected lenses.

Camera Kit Integrations

Snap’s Head of Global AR Product Strategy and Product Marketing Carolina Arguelles Navas took to the stage to talk about recent and upcoming partnerships, including some that affect apps and experiences outside of Snapchat itself through its Camera Kit offering.

For example, Snap lenses can now be used in Microsoft Teams and in the NFL app. LA Rams’ SoFi Stadium even uses Snap Lenses on their Infinity Screen to show the audience with augmented reality effects.

Navas also discussed Snap’s ongoing partnership with Live Nation, bringing custom AR lenses to over a dozen concerts this year including Lollapalooza in Paris and The Governor’s Ball in New York. She also announced a new partnership with Disguise, a company that specializes in real-time interactive visuals for live events.

Snap is also partnering with individual artists. The first to be announced is KYGO, a DJ, with more artist partnerships to be announced throughout the year.

More Opportunities for Brands

Until now, Camera Kit has been the main way that other companies were able to use Snap’s technology. However, Jill Popelka announced a new division, Augmented Reality Enterprise Services (ARES), of which she is the head.

Snap AR Enterprise Services (ARES)

“We all know the shopping experience today, whether online or in-store, presents a lot of options,” said Popelka. “We’ve already seen how our AR advancements can benefit shoppers and partners.”

The “AR-as-a-Service” model currently consists of two main offerings. Shopping Suite brings together Snap’s virtual try-on and sizing recommendation solutions, while the Enterprise Manager helps companies keep track of their activations including through analytics.

Popelka also announced a new “Live Garment” feature that generates a wearable 3D garment from a 2D photo of a garment uploaded into a lens.

Commercial Hardware

Popelka also introduced two new hardware offerings from Snap to commercial partners – AR mirrors and AR-enabled vending machine.

AR mirrors are already making their way into clothing stores to make virtual try-on even easier for shoppers, including those who don’t have Snapchat. Some partners have even experimented with incorporating AR games that shoppers can play to unlock in-store rewards. Retailers are also using the opportunity specifically to engage with younger audiences.

Snap Partner Summit 2023 - Jill Popelka showing AR mirrors
Jill Popelka showing AR mirrors

Snap currently has its AR mirror in a Men’s Wearhouse store.

“[Men’s Wearhouse is] proud to launch digital partnerships and store innovations specifically geared toward how high school students want to shop and prepare for prom,” Tailored Brands President John Tighe said in a release shared with ARPost. “We are excited to offer these younger customers experiences in-store and online to make the shopping experience easier. Everyone deserves to look and feel their best on prom night.”

Snap also partnered with Coca-Cola to create a prototype of an AR vending machine controlled with hand gestures displayed on a screen.

AR-enabled Coca-Cola vending machine - Snap

It might be a while before you see either of these devices in a store near you, but keep an eye out all the same.

App Updates

The standard app is getting some AR updates too, mainly related to the company’s work with AI. When Snapchatters capture a photo or video, the app will recommend lenses that might match the scene. AI will also recommend lenses for reacting to Snapchat memories and produce a new generation of lenses available to users.

Keep Exploring Snapchat

There really was a lot in the Partner Summit that wasn’t detailed here. So, if you use Snapchat for more than just AR, keep checking into the app to see even more changes coming in the next few months.

AWE USA 2023 giveaway

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Ray Tracing Comes to Snap Lens Studio

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One of the most powerful recent breakthroughs in graphics and rendering is coming to mobile AR thanks to a recent update to Snap’s Lens Studio. We’re talking about ray tracing.

What Is Ray Tracing?

Ray tracing is a rendering technique that helps to bring digital assets to life in the environment around them – whether that environment is digital or viewed in augmented reality. Recent examples in gaming include convincingly reflective surfaces like water, believable dynamic shadows, and improved light effects.

The technique can be fairly computing-heavy, which can be a problem depending on the program and how it is accessed. For example, when some existing games are updated to use ray tracing, users accessing that game on an older or less fully-featured computer or console may have to turn the feature off to avoid problematic latency.

Fortunately, ray tracing is being developed at the same time as new computing and connectivity methods like cloud and edge computing. These advancements allow the heavy lifting of advanced computing techniques to take place off of the device, allowing older or less fully-featured devices to run more high-level experiences smoothly.

While Snap releases detailing the update didn’t mention Lens Cloud, it’s likely that that feature is behind the update. Announced at the 2022 Snap Partner Summit, which also announced ray tracing for the first time, Lens Cloud provides improved off-device storage and compute, among other advancements.

The Road to Lens Studio

If you closely follow Snap, you’ve known for almost a year that this was coming. Snap also discussed ray tracing at the fifth annual Lens Fest in December. There we learned that the update has been in the hands of select developers for a while now, and they’ve been working with Snap partners to create experiences pioneering the software.

The news announced yesterday is that the feature is now in Lens Studio, meaning that any Lens creator can use it. We also have a new demonstration of the technology: a Lens created with Snap partner Tiffany & Co.

Snap ray tracing - Tiffany & Co

The company has likely been so involved in the development and showcasing of Snap’s ray tracing at least in part because the jewelry that the company is known for provides both a great challenge for and an excellent demonstration of the technology. However, Snap is already looking forward to the feature finding other use cases.

“Now, Lenses that feature AR diamond jewelry, clothing and so much more can reach ultra-realistic quality,” Snap said in the announcement.

The principal use case presented by Snap in the announcement is virtual try-on for clothing retail, like the Tiffany & Co. Lens. However, it is likely only a matter of time before the new feature finds its way into other kinds of AR experiences as well.

What’s Next?

Ray tracing is likely to be a topic yet again at the upcoming Snap Partner Summit in April, and ARPost will be there to hear about it. The online event doesn’t have the same energy as Lens Fest but as we saw here, the Partner Summit is often the first look at Snap’s developing software offerings. We always look forward to seeing what they’ll roll out next.

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New Chipotle AR Experience Motivates Fans to Keep New Year’s Health Resolutions

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Aside from serving great food made from fresh ingredients, restaurant chain Chipotle Mexican Grill  strives to promote health and wellness by making healthy food more accessible and creating engaging experiences. This January, it kicks off the year with a Chipotle AR experience that motivates fans to keep their New Year’s health resolutions.

Chipotle AR Experience: No Quitting on Quitter’s Day

Chipotle fans are no quitters. And Chipotle is all set to prove this as it launches its new Snapchat Lens this Friday, January 13. The first Friday the 13th of this year also happens to be Quitter’s Day, the day when people are most likely to give up on their New Year’s resolutions. For Chipotle, this is the perfect day to give fans the drive to push forward and not quit their journey to good health.

“We’re making New Year’s resolutions fun by gamifying the experience and offering balanced meals made with real ingredients that you feel good eating,” said Chipotle CMO, Chris Brandt, in a press release shared with ARPost.

To help motivate people to keep their health resolutions this year, the Chipotle AR experience will encourage fans to move and meditate using AR Lens. Chipotle-inspired exercises and meditation prompts will guide users as they move their bodies and calm their minds for holistic well-being.

Chipotle AR experience - Snapchat Lens Quitter's Day

Moreover, 100,000 participants who complete the prompts will be rewarded with promo codes (10,000 codes will be awarded per day from January 13 through January 23, 2023) for free guacamole—an irresistible healthy treat that tastes great with almost everything.

New Lifestyle Bowls Inspired by New Wellness Trends

Aside from the Chipotle AR experience, the company is also launching a new Lifestyle Bowl menu to further inspire consumers to maintain their healthy resolutions. Lifestyle Bowls are digital exclusive menu items available in the United States and in Canada.

The new lineup of bowls is inspired by wellness trends popular among the Gen Z and Millennial crowd. It features seven new Lifestyle Bowls that reflect the individualized, holistic interpretations of wellness of the younger generations.

Chipotle Lifestyle Bowls

The 2023 Lifestyle Bowl menu includes the Wholesome Bowl, Grain Freedom Bowl, Plant-Powered Bowl, Full Veggie Bowl, Go Half Veggie Bowl, High Protein Bowl, and Balanced Macros Bowl. The new Lifestyle Bowls were designed to make healthy habits easy to sustain and incorporate into daily routines.

Chipotle AR Experiences to Live Your Best Lifestyle

With its new wellness-inspired AR experience, Chipotle has positioned itself as the first restaurant brand to create a Snapchat Lens that promotes fitness and health.

As it strives to meet the needs and demands of modern consumers, the global food giant is likely to create more Chipotle AR experiences that encourage consumers to maintain healthy habits. By leveraging immersive technologies to enhance customer experiences, Chipotle helps fans live their best lifestyle.

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Snap Celebrates the Fifth Annual Lens Fest

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Snap Lens Fest took place on December 6 and 7. The annual event is a celebration of the Snap Lens creator community, as well as an opportunity for the company to announce initiatives and software offerings. The event is also home to the Lens Fest Awards.

If you’re a Snapchat user, Lens Fest gives you an insight into what’s happening behind the lens and what’s coming next. If you aren’t a Snapchat user, you should still pay attention as Snap’s design tools are used by other organizations to develop their AR tools and games as well.

Welcome Back!

Four Snap leads used the keynote to set the stage for the rest of Lens Fest (as well as make the first major announcements). First, Snap Chief Technology Officer, Bobby Murphy, presented Lens Studio – Snap’s developer suite – as being an organic collaboration between the company and the users of the platform.

Lens Studio - Snap Lens Fest 2022

“We’re excited to be here to celebrate you, the global Lens developer community,” said Murphy. “We’re excited to continue developing Lens Studio along with you … There is so much opportunity ahead of us.”

To Murphy, this two-way development of Lens Studio is a major part of the development of AR as a whole. This draws on Snap’s longstanding position that AR is the future of immersive tech. It would come to be an ongoing theme for later presentations as well.

“The best and most engaging AR filters add to the world rather than replace it,” said Murphy. “Over time, we see the potential for wearable technology, like our Spectacles, to make it even more accessible.”

Updates and Opportunities

Following Murphy, Software Engineering Senior Manager, Trevor Stephenson, discussed some of the big updates to Lens Studio in the past year, including Ray Tracing. The feature, which was announced at Snap’s Partner Summit in April, is already in the hands of select partners but is coming to the platform more publicly next year.

Next, Joe Darko, Global Head of AR Developer Relations, spoke about learning and development opportunities culminating in a new “Lensathon.” The remote opportunity opened on the first day of Lens Fest and continues through the end of January. Following the event, a total of $200,000 will be awarded, including $40,000 to the top project.



The Future of Creator Monetization?

Finally, Director of AR Platform Partnerships and Ecosystems, Sophia Dominguez, took the virtual stage. She teased early experiments with creators to create AR items and assets available to Snap users in exchange for tokens – but didn’t suggest a release date. The coming feature, which was promoted as a creator monetization option, tied back into Murphy’s opening themes.

“We believe that as more developers like you establish businesses, we move closer to our wearable future,” said Dominguez. “We’re committed to pushing the AR industry forward alongside you.”

More on the Economic Future of AR

For the Lens Fest next session, a non-Snapchatter took the stage – Mike Boland of ARtillery Intelligence. He discussed the trajectory of AR as a market, specifically for advertising.

Boland likened AR to the early internet, saying that it will meet and even exceed all of our expectations provided that we remember that that kind of development will take time. Boland also said that, historically, emerging technologies had done well in market economic slowdowns as they cut their legacy ad spending while continuing to find the next big thing.

According to Boland, we’re already seeing signs of AR maturing as a market, such as the shift from the selfie cam to the world-facing cam. While Boland said that AR glasses are “years away,” he also pointed out that AR glasses only have world-facing cameras. He also pointed to the shift to more productive and informative AR lenses as a further sign of maturity.

“In addition to fun and whimsical lenses, we see an increase in practical lenses,” said Boland. “We’ll still see lots of fun and games in AR just like we do on the web today.”

“What’s New in Lens Studio”

The next Lens Fest session took a closer look at the more near-term future. Lens Studio Product Marketing Manager Leigh Brown and Product Manager Charmain Lee presented updates to Snap Lens Cloud and collision mesh software.

Lens Cloud was announced at the Partner Summit and allows lens creators to store assets remotely so that running a lens is less of a technical task for the device. An impending update to Lens Cloud will allow users to edit the live version of their lens by changing which assets are in the Lens Cloud version of the project.

Another coming update to Lens Studio can automatically make a collision mesh of both virtual objects and the physical world. There will also be new filters for finding a mesh that will provide just the right collision.

The Lens Fest Awards

This is the Fifth annual Lens Fest, but only the second annual Lens Fest Awards. The event recognized 50 finalists across five categories with one winner in each. Hosting the Awards was Snap’s European AR Developer Relations Lead, Oscar Falmer. Once again, judges came from across Snap, though the categories were different this year.

“We’re thrilled to be here today to celebrate the year’s most creative lenses and the developers who build them,” said Falmer. “All great AR begins with the creativity of Lens developers and creators.”

Play

The first category recognized lenses “that use gaming or entertainment to enhance how we experience the world” and the award went to Table Trenches: Operation Living Room by DB Creations. The multi-player game uses scans of a player’s environment to create a reactive map for a tower-defense-style strategy game.

The Lens Fest Awards - Table Trenches

“Thanks so much to everyone who helped us make this game a reality,” said DB Creations co-founder Dustin Kochensparger. “I can’t wait to show you what we’re working on next.”

Fashion

The Fashion category recognized lenses that “revolutionize the world of personal style.” The award went to Vishal Yadav’s Flux Fashion, a lens that allows users to customize a virtual garment using colors sourced from their physical environments.

The Lens Fest Awards - Vishal Yadav’s Flux Fashion

Yadav, also a nominee in the Wellness category, expressed gratitude at recognition of his lens saying, “It means a lot to me.”

Education

The Education category “celebrates lenses that raise awareness for important causes or foster knowledge through AR.” The award went to Inna Horobchuk for Sky Map. Sky Map is an interactive annotated map of stars and constellations – something that took a whole dedicated app when this XR journalist started writing.

“I’m super excited that people from all around the globe can engage with my lens and learn about stars and constellations in AR,” said Horobchuk, who was also a nominee for the Wellness category.

Wellness

The Wellness category celebrated “lenses that contribute to physical and mental well-being” and was awarded to Soft Drink Info by Wasim Ghole.

The lens displays nutrition information for a number of popular sodas and energy drinks. Ghole thanked Snap for recognizing the lens, and for providing the tools to create and distribute it.

Moonshot

The final Lens Fest Award category “highlights creators who have seen the limitless potential of AR and have challenged themselves to do something that has never been done before.” The award went to Dennis Rossiev’s Imaginary Friends, which allows users to turn scans of objects in their environment into cartoon companions.

The Lens Fest Awards - Dennis Rossiev Imaginary Friends

“With machine learning, I was able to build a lens that I’ve been dreaming about for so long,” said Rossiev. In addition to having been a nominee in two other categories this year, Rossiev also won in an “originality” category at last year’s Lens Fest Awards.

The Camera That Keeps on Giving

For the outfit that still calls itself a “camera company,” Snap is leaning more into AR than ever before. Dedicated specifically to Lenses, Lens Fest is a necessarily AR-focused event. If the company stays consistent, the next Partner Summit should be in a few months to key us into other elements of the company’s strategy.

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