Meta disables Muse Image feature that tapped public Instagram photos

Meta has withdrawn a function from one of its newest artificial intelligence products after critics argued the tool treated public Instagram posts as raw material for machine-made pictures.

The company acted on Friday, barely a week after Meta — which owns Instagram and Facebook — introduced Muse Image. The model is Meta’s first image generator offered through its Meta AI assistant.

“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,” Meta said in a statement. “We’ve heard the feedback that this feature missed the mark, so it’s no longer available.”

As with rival generative systems, Muse Image produces pictures from prompts supplied by users. Unlike many peers, however, it also treated photographs on every public Instagram profile as default reference material when assembling new images.

That arrangement sparked a wave of posts on social platforms warning about privacy risks and walking Instagram users through steps to block Muse Image from tapping their accounts.

Entertainment industry figures joined the pushback. The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists advised members to adjust their Instagram privacy settings so their faces and likenesses would not be exposed.

On X, SAG-AFTRA praised Meta for disabling the capability.

“With the dangers of nonconsensual digital replicas well known to all, a feature that encouraged that behavior is unwise,” the union said. “We appreciate its discontinuance. It is the right thing to do.”