Meta has abruptly removed a new AI feature that allowed Instagram users to generate fake images from other people’s content, admitting it “missed the mark” after a fierce backlash over privacy. The feature, part of the rollout of its Muse Image tool on Tuesday, let people using the Meta AI chatbot tag public Instagram accounts and instantly create altered images from those accounts’ posts. But by opting all users in by default, it meant anyone with a public profile could have their likeness exploited without knowledge or consent.
The Hollywood union Sag-Aftra called the U-turn a “win”, having urged members and “all Instagram users” to protect their likeness, accusing Meta of an “utter miscalculation of public sentiment regarding the obvious dangers and harms inherent in such use”. Privacy International, a London-based human rights charity, told the BBC the feature was “the latest sign AI companies see people’s images and data as raw material to be exploited”.
“Meta pulls AI image tool after backlash over privacy, while introducing parent alerts for teen AI chatbot conversations on suicide.”
Meta said in a statement: “Our intent was to provide a useful creative tool and to give people control over whether their public content could be referenced in this way. We’ve heard the feedback.” The company now says the feature is “no longer available”. Muse Image was Meta’s first AI image generation tool, but its removal comes as the firm plans further AI integrations for WhatsApp, Facebook and Messenger, and also develops an AI video tool.
In a separate move, Meta is rolling out a new safety feature that will alert parents if their teenager discusses suicide or self-harm with Instagram’s built-in AI chatbot. The initiative appears designed to address concerns about the risks of AI on young users, even as the company retreats from its image-generation experiment. Meta declined to make any further comment on either development.
