The company said it had heard feedback that the capability “missed the mark.”
Meta has disabled a controversial Muse Image feature. When the company introduced the model, it also announced that on Instagram, anyone could tag a public account — including yours, if it’s public — and automatically generate AI deepfakes based on their posts. The tagger and Muse Image didn’t even need to ask your permission. Meta wrote in its launch post that you can @mention people to use this feature if “you want to design a personalized event invitation, mock up a collaborative creative concept, or generate a custom graphic.”
In an update to its Muse Image announcement, the company said it had heard feedback that the capability “missed the mark” and had removed it. “Earlier this week, we announced that one way for people to generate images in Meta AI is to @-mention public Instagram accounts they want to reference,” the company wrote. “Our intention was to provide a useful creative tool and allow users to control whether their public content could be referenced in this way. We heard feedback that this feature missed the mark and is therefore no longer available.”
The tool was criticized online upon its announcement, especially since you had to unsubscribe if you didn’t want the image generator to be able to create AI deepfakes from your account’s posts. You had to dig deeper into your Settings menu and turn off an option that said “Allow people to create and reuse your content.” It was either that or set your Instagram profile to private.
According to Varietyit’s not just ordinary users who have vocally criticized it. Hollywood agency CAA, whose clients include Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep, reportedly raised its concerns directly with Meta. “An individual’s name, image, likeness, voice or creative work must not be used by any third party, including AI models, without clear and documented consent,” the agency said in a statement. The American union SAG-AFTRA also encouraged its members to withdraw. Do you have these organizations to thank for removing this feature? Maybe, maybe not. But that’s over now, and I hope Meta won’t roll out any more AI features that involve using your image without having to get your explicit permission.
